Publication Date:
2008-03-22
Description:
Cassini radar observations of Saturn's moon Titan over several years show that its rotational period is changing and is different from its orbital period. The present-day rotation period difference from synchronous spin leads to a shift of approximately 0.36 degrees per year in apparent longitude and is consistent with seasonal exchange of angular momentum between the surface and Titan's dense superrotating atmosphere, but only if Titan's crust is decoupled from the core by an internal water ocean like that on Europa.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lorenz, Ralph D -- Stiles, Bryan W -- Kirk, Randolph L -- Allison, Michael D -- Del Marmo, Paolo Persi -- Iess, Luciano -- Lunine, Jonathan I -- Ostro, Steven J -- Hensley, Scott -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Mar 21;319(5870):1649-51. doi: 10.1126/science.1151639.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Space Department, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA. ralph.lorenz@jhuapl.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18356521" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atmosphere
;
Extraterrestrial Environment
;
Ice
;
*Saturn
;
Spacecraft
;
*Water
;
Wind
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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