Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...15b&link_type=abstract
Through Time; A Workshop On Titan's Past, Present and Future, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, April 6th - 8th, 2010. Edited b
Physics
Scientific paper
Conditions similar to those that lead to a partially differentiated Callisto can produce a similar state for Titan. If satellite formation occurred at Saturn at the same time or later as Jupiter, and had a similar duration, a partially differentiated post-accretion state for Titan is plausible (Barr et al., 2010). If Titan accretes from meter-to-kilometer sized undifferentiated ice/rock objects small enough to deposit their energy close to the surface where it can be efficiently radiated away, Titan avoids melting during its formation if it accretes slowly, in > 0.8 Myr. Considering both accretional and short-lived radiogenic heating, Titan must finish forming no earlier than 4.3 Myr after the formation of CAI's to avoid melting. Inclusion of up 15% ammonia increases the required formation end time for a partially differentiated Titan by about 10%. These conditions are consistent with Titan's formation in a "gas-starved" disk supplied by the slow inflow of < 1 meter-sized rock and ice particles from solar to planetary orbit (Canup & Ward 2002, 2006, 2009). In this model, the satellites form in a much lower gas-density circumplanetary disk than invoked by prior models, and at a slow rate controlled by the rate of delivery of ice/rock solids to the disk from the solar nebula. If Titan formed in a gas-rich environment, from large impactors that deposit their accretional energy at depth, and/or from impactors that are themselves differentiated, a longer formation time is required to account for a partially differentiated initial state. If Titan accreted in less than 105 yr, substantial ice melting is expected that is unlikely to be consistent with a current partially differentiated state for the satellite.
Barr Amy Courtright
Canup Robin M.
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