Titan's Interior Structure and Dynamics After the Cassini-Huygens Mission
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F21%3A10436275" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/21:10436275 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=9JE04x55Uv" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=9JE04x55Uv</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-072920-052847" target="_blank" >10.1146/annurev-earth-072920-052847</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Titan's Interior Structure and Dynamics After the Cassini-Huygens Mission
Original language description
The Cassini-Huygens mission that explored the Saturn system during the period 2004-2017 revolutionized our understanding of Titan, the only knownmoon with a dense atmosphere and the only body, besides Earth, with stable surface liquids. Its predominantly nitrogen atmosphere also contains a few percent of methane that is photolyzed on short geological timescales to form ethane and more complex organic molecules. The presence of a significant amount of methane and Ar-40, the decay product of K-40, argues for exchange processes from the interior to the surface. Here we review the information that constrains Titan's interior structure. Gravity and orbital data suggest that Titan is an ocean world, which implies differentiation into a hydrosphere and a rocky core. The mass and gravity data complemented by equations of state constrain the ocean density and composition as well as the hydrosphere thickness. We present end-member models, review the dynamics of each layer, and discuss the global evolution consistent with the Cassini-Huygens data. Titan is the only moon with a dense atmosphere where organic molecules are synthesized and have sedimented at the surface. The Cassini-Huygens mission demonstrated that Titan is an ocean world with an internal water shell and liquid hydrocarbon seas at the poles. Interactions between water, rock, and organics may have occurred during most of Titan's evolution, which has strong astrobiological implications. Data collected by the Dragonfly mission and comparison with the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) data for Ganymede will further reveal Titan's astrobiology potential.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10500 - Earth and related environmental sciences
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA19-10809S" target="_blank" >GA19-10809S: Thermomechanical processes in icy moons - insight from numerical modeling</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
ISSN
0084-6597
e-ISSN
—
Volume of the periodical
49
Issue of the periodical within the volume
2021
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
29
Pages from-to
579-607
UT code for WoS article
000661535000023
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85107062524