Saturn’s Rings Shaped from Shredded Chrysalis Moon

New theories have surfaced behind the 27-degree tilt of Saturn and the infamous rings around it.

The theory includes the belief that Saturn once had a moon, which scientists have coined Chrysalis, explaining why it tilts. Furthermore, the moon is no longer visible because it was violently destroyed during an orbit when it came to close to the planet, hence leaving Chrysalis in shatters that form the rings we see today.

The name was chosen based on premise of a cocoon of a butterfly. “The satellite Chrysalis was dormant for 4.5 billion years, presumably. Then suddenly the rings of Saturn emerged from it.”
Jack Wisdom, one of the researchers, explained that “We like it because it’s a scenario that explains two or three different things that were previously not thought to be related. The rings are related to the tilt, who would ever have guessed that?”

After evaluating a slew of other theories, Wisdom and his team concluded that the must have been the addition of a second, relatively small moon. This would explain the periodic gravitational influence between Saturn and Neptune with Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

The findings suggest that Chrysalis orbited Saturn so close that it barely touched the tops of the planet’s clouds. As a result, the moon was shattered, and its fragments were gradually crushed into the rings.

Technological testing depicts that the ring creation scenario would only happen 17 times out of 390 possible outcomes. However, the very presence of such large and spectacular rings is also extremely uncommon.

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