Effect of an outer solar system late heavy bombardment on Titan's interior

Details Effect of an outer solar system late heavy bombardment on Titan's interior Effect of an outer solar system late heavy bombardment on Titan's interior

Apr 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...32c&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

The interior state of Titan is important to understanding the formation and evolution of the saturnian system (Barr and Canup, 2008; Barr et al., 2010). Predictions regarding ice/rock separation in Titan during its early evolution can also guide future interpretations of its moment of inertia (MOI). Recent theories of satellite formation suggest Titan can accrete undifferentiated in a gas-starved disk, even with modest amounts of ammonia mixed in with its ice (Barr and Canup, 2008; Barr et al., 2010). For Titan to remain undifferentiated it must also survive an outer solar system late heavy bombardment (LHB), predicted by recently proposed scenarios for the origin of the lunar LHB including the Nice model (Levison et al., 2001; Gomes et al., 2005). If the lunar LHB was triggered by the dynamical evolution of the outer solar system, the resulting bombardment would deliver cometary material onto Titan via hypervelocity impacts. Impacts would melt regions of Titan's surface, separating ice from rock and allowing rock to sink to the satellite's center. If a significant amount of separation occurs (> 50%), Titan will undergo runaway differentiation. Using a 3-D Monte Carlo model, we investigate ice/rock separation due to LHB hypervelocity impacts. We develop a limit on the mass of impacting material Titan can withstand before runaway differentiation is triggered. We find that Titan can remain partially differentiated after an outer Solar System LHB of the magnitude predicted by the Nice model (Barr et al., 2010).

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