With more than 80 moons, Saturn could rank among the most dynamic planetary system in Sol's neighbourhood; with its giant underground oceans and protective magnetic fields, experts explore how Saturn's moons offer new insight into the Solar System.
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LearningTranscript
00:00orbiting the magnificent ringed planet
00:06Saturn are a series of extraordinary moons
00:11the closer that we look the more that we
00:16see its moons are like worlds of their
00:18own so dynamic so earth-like almost a
00:22billion miles from the Sun these icy
00:26worlds could be home for life 2.0
00:29the moons of Saturn offer possibly the
00:34best chance of finding extraterrestrial
00:37life in our solar system
00:38with each new mission we get closer to
00:46unraveling the mysteries of Saturn's moons
00:49October 2019 astronomers discover 20 new
01:12moons orbiting the gas giant Saturn these
01:18tiny three-mile-wide objects bring the
01:21ringed planets moon count to over 80 the
01:27most of any planet in our solar system you
01:33hate to play favorites but I'm gonna say
01:34Saturn is my favorite planetary system it
01:39is unbelievably beautiful this incredible
01:41system of rings and moons and there's a lot
01:44of mystery kind of all bound up in there
01:47the Voyager spacecraft gave us our first close look at
01:53Saturn and its rings two decades later Cassini got us even
02:00closer to many of Saturn's moons there's Prometheus Pandora and
02:08Atlas its largest moon Titan is a moon that's shrouded in mystery there's minus that's fairly small and then Tethys and Dione are a bit larger
02:23there are a pair of moons Janus and Epimetheus that were perhaps one moon in the past
02:29Niapetus half of its bright white the other half is it sort of as dark as coal sort of ying and yang
02:37each of the moons of Saturn had remarkable stories to tell in 2005 Cassini discovered that one moon story was particularly exciting
02:53yeah Enceladus
02:55Enceladus is one of Saturn's wee little moons it's about 300 miles across for scale it's roughly the size of Colorado
03:03the spacecraft's cameras spot plumes of water vapor shooting out from Enceladus at 800 miles an hour
03:15three times as powerful than all the hot springs in Yellowstone
03:23the discovery of geysers gushing out of tiny little Enceladus that should have been cold and dead
03:31completely changed our view of what that moon exactly was
03:34it's alive that moon's alive I'd like to be standing there on the surface of Enceladus to see with
03:41this water vapor and ice crystals booming out of the surface at supersonic speeds
03:47Cassini's sensors probe deep beneath the frozen surface of Enceladus detecting hints of a rocky core
04:05and something else even more remarkable
04:08underneath that thick layer of ice there is liquid water ocean
04:15the measurements suggest this is a huge part of Enceladus's interior volume about six miles deep
04:23because it was making Enceladus wobble in its orbit imagine putting liquid inside a ball and rolling it
04:29you see the natural wobble of the ball as the liquid sloshes around
04:32giant liquid oceans on an alien world opening up exciting new possibilities
04:41where you find water you could possibly find life
04:46if you would ask me 20 years ago where there might be life in the solar system besides earth
04:54I think Saturn's moons would have been the last place I would have picked
04:57but against all odds it's looking like this tiny icy moon orbiting Saturn nearly a billion miles from the sun
05:06may be one of the best places to look for life
05:09July 2021
05:13a new study re-examines Cassini's plume data
05:18and finds huge quantities of methane
05:22this large amount can't be explained by just geochemical processes
05:29the methane might be from primordial organic matter breaking down in Enceladus's oceans
05:38or even processes we've never seen before
05:43but it could be that living microorganisms help generate the methane
05:52just like they do on earth
05:55Enceladus might actually look a lot like early earth
06:00in its deepest oceans when life was first arising
06:03because we know that there are some chemical pathways
06:05that are likely occurring on Enceladus that happened on earth
06:07these chemical pathways start with hot hydrothermal vents
06:16on earth's cold sea floor
06:18releasing important life-giving chemicals into the oceans
06:22having hydrothermal vents are a real boon to the evolution of life
06:28these are cracks in the earth's crust
06:31where hot material can then spew out into the ocean
06:36and that's the energy that life needs to be able to form
06:40and then water
06:40so everything is present
06:42and things are able to just grab all these resources and energy
06:45and just start to evolve
06:46on earth hydrothermal vents produce methane
06:51but only in small amounts
06:53microbial life living around the vents makes the rest
06:59maybe microorganisms do the same
07:06at the bottom of Enceladus's deep oceans
07:10hydrothermal vents on Enceladus
07:17could offer the perfect location
07:19for chemistry becoming biochemistry
07:22becoming life
07:24hydrothermal vents normally require heat
07:30from a hot core
07:31so what's going on inside Enceladus
07:41this is an icy moon
07:44out there in the cold outer solar system
07:46where's all this heat coming from
07:47Cassini spotted Enceladus's plumes
07:52shooting out from parallel cracks in the surface
07:55called tiger stripes
07:57the cracks are a clue to the origin of the geysers
08:05and the energy that powers them
08:08we look to the orbit of Enceladus itself
08:13it's not in a perfectly circular orbit around the planet
08:15it's on a slightly elliptical orbit
08:17and that means that the tidal forces acting on the moon
08:20change over time
08:22it's a little bit like the forces on a rubber ball
08:25when the moon is closer to the planet
08:27it's stretched out
08:29and when the moon is farther from the planet
08:31it's relaxed back a little bit
08:32so you're going to squeeze and deform
08:35and squish the body of that moon over time
08:38which is going to heat its interior
08:39the warm rocky core heats up the ocean
08:46which both powers the geysers
08:49as they burst through the surface
08:51and creates conditions
08:54that could support life
08:57we see the energy source
09:02kicking the water out of the Enceladus subsurface
09:04you combine that energy source
09:07and liquid water
09:08that harkens to putting us on the same path
09:10that early life may have taken here on the earth
09:12and if that's the case
09:14there could be little beasties
09:15swimming underneath the surface
09:17of one of Saturn's moons
09:18Saturn's squeezing of Enceladus
09:22may have transformed it
09:24into a living world
09:25but other moons weren't as lucky
09:31they've been torn apart
09:34in vicious fights
09:36to the death
09:37there are a huge variety of moons orbiting Saturn
09:58from Titan
10:01a moon larger than the planet Mercury
10:03to objects
10:07about the size of a sports stadium
10:09there must be something dramatic that happened
10:12to create a system that's so complicated
10:15and changing before our very eyes
10:17to understand such a marked difference in size
10:22scientists look for clues in the moon's orbits
10:25around Saturn itself
10:27most of the moons of that system
10:31orbit in the same direction
10:33that's obviously not a coincidence
10:34that's motion left over
10:36from the formation of our solar system
10:38this suggests the moons
10:41formed around the same time
10:43as Saturn did
10:444.6 billion years ago
10:48the ringless gas giant
10:50grows from gas
10:51rock and ice
10:52in the protoplanetary disk
10:54along with a family of moons
10:56this origin story
11:01works for most of Saturn's moons
11:03but not for the recently discovered objects
11:08orbiting in the opposite direction
11:11of the planet's rotation
11:13if there's a moon orbiting in the other direction
11:17it couldn't have formed with the planet
11:19it must have come from somewhere else
11:23Saturn captured these moons
11:26but from where?
11:33we think there's a huge upheaval
11:34on the solar system
11:35over 4 billion years ago
11:37where the giant planets
11:38went from a close and compact configuration
11:41started having interactions with each other
11:44moved each other around
11:45to end up into the orbits that they find today
11:47during that process
11:48a lot of smaller bodies
11:50like asteroids
11:51from the distant part of the solar system
11:52got scattered
11:53every which direction
11:54during this ancient upheaval
11:58Saturn grabs some of the scattered objects
12:01many bodies now crowd the region
12:07around the planet
12:08and that means collisions
12:12some are destructive
12:17others form new moons
12:20in the cosmic pinball
12:22some moons are thrown out of the system
12:25and others into Saturn
12:29only one large moon survives the carnage
12:32and all of a sudden
12:35most of the mass of all the satellites
12:36is in that single moon Titan
12:38Titan may have formed from the material
12:44in the protoplanetary disk
12:46at the same time as Saturn
12:48but then gorged on the debris
12:51created in the later lunar collisions
12:53it amassed 96% of the material orbiting Saturn
13:02and grew so large
13:04that it developed a dense atmosphere
13:06when Voyager
13:12photographed Titan
13:13it clearly showed that Titan
13:15had a thick atmosphere
13:16which was so incredibly exciting
13:17but it was so dense and impenetrable
13:20that was all we could see
13:21two decades after Voyager
13:26the Huygens probe
13:27launched from Cassini
13:29and plunged through the murky depths
13:33of Titan's atmosphere
13:34our first images
13:42of what the Titanic landscape was like
13:45were utterly and truly mind-blowing
13:48it showed there were mountains
13:51and there was sort of erosion
13:53on those mountains
13:53that looked like liquid
13:54had fallen down the mountains
13:56and brought material with it
13:58that liquid must have come from somewhere
14:01and where else than rain
14:03than weather on Titan
14:04we've only found two places
14:07in the solar system
14:09with rivers
14:10and rain
14:11earth
14:13and Titan
14:15out of this thick gloom
14:18this is the most similar place
14:19to earth we've ever seen
14:21similar but not identical
14:24that rain
14:28filling lakes and rivers
14:30on Titan
14:31isn't water
14:32it's liquid methane
14:34it's like
14:36if every oil well
14:38if every gas station
14:39on earth
14:40started leaking
14:40all over the place
14:41that is what we see
14:43on this world
14:44the methane
14:47is a liquid
14:48on Titan
14:49because the surface temperature
14:50is 290 degrees
14:52below zero
14:53which is a big problem
14:56for life
14:57as we understand it
14:58we don't know
15:01of any organism
15:02that can really survive
15:03past negative 4 degrees
15:04Fahrenheit
15:05and that's just because
15:06cells will tend
15:07to freeze there
15:08the cells that we have
15:10what they're made up from
15:12these proteins
15:13and fatty material
15:14stop working
15:15and everything will die
15:16that's what happens
15:20to earth's
15:20water-based cells
15:22but
15:26could methane-based life
15:28survive an extreme cold
15:29the ALMA telescope
15:34spotted a clue
15:35in Titan's nitrogen
15:36and methane-rich
15:38atmosphere
15:38with sunlight
15:41hitting the atmosphere
15:42of Titan
15:43things like methane
15:44and nitrogen
15:45can get broken apart
15:46and reassembled
15:48like playing
15:49with Lego blocks
15:50and then these molecules
15:52recombine
15:53to make new ones
15:55like vinyl cyanide
15:57artist's depiction
16:00used on earth
16:04to make plastics
16:05vinyl cyanide
16:06can build long chains
16:08of molecules
16:08the type you need
16:11to build cell membranes
16:12but unlike earth's
16:20water-based cells
16:21the extreme cold
16:22wouldn't destroy them
16:24it could survive
16:28at those low temperatures
16:29so on Titan
16:30it could be
16:31that this vinyl cyanide
16:33is able to form
16:33the membranes
16:34that are required
16:35for cells to develop
16:36which are required
16:37for life to happen
16:39and good news
16:44there's a lot of this stuff
16:46on Titan
16:47right now
16:48there's as much as
16:5210 billion tons
16:53of this vinyl cyanide
16:55in just one of the lakes
16:56if you want to start
16:57making creatures out of it
16:59say
16:59I don't know
16:59giant squid
17:00do you like giant squids?
17:02I hope so
17:03because you could make
17:04billions of giant squids
17:07out of this vinyl cyanide
17:10Saturn's geyser moon
17:13Enceladus
17:14could have life
17:15as we know it
17:16Titan
17:18might
17:19have something
17:20truly alien
17:21it is an unrelentingly
17:24brutal
17:25cold place
17:26compared to earth
17:27but for Titanic life
17:29it might just be ideal
17:31as we search for life
17:34beyond earth
17:35it still comes with a bias
17:36of life as we know it
17:38and so it's great
17:40as we continue to explore
17:41and continue to evolve
17:42our definitions
17:43we can expand our view
17:45of how to search for life
17:47maybe the Saturn system
17:50has two living worlds
17:52but for life to thrive
17:57on Titan's surface
17:58it must survive
18:00a storm of deadly particles
18:02racing out of the sun
18:04at over a million miles an hour
18:06the sun provides light
18:24light and warmth
18:25and something else
18:31something very dangerous
18:33the solar wind
18:35these lethal solar particles
18:40can strip away atmosphere
18:42from planets
18:43and moons
18:44without an atmosphere
18:50earth would be
18:51a barren desert
18:52right
18:53there wouldn't be any water
18:54it would just all boil away
18:55there wouldn't be any life
18:57luckily
18:59earth has a built-in
19:01defense system
19:02in the center of our earth
19:05we have a solid iron core
19:07and surrounding that
19:08is liquid iron
19:10that is constantly moving
19:11and swirling
19:13and convecting
19:14and these complex motions
19:15power up
19:17a global scale
19:18magnetic field
19:19and this acts like a force field
19:25against the solar wind
19:26pushes it away
19:27pushes it around us
19:28so it doesn't hit us
19:29we think that Saturn's moon
19:33Titan
19:34has no molten iron core
19:37and therefore
19:40no protective magnetic field
19:42so it's at the mercy
19:45of the solar wind
19:46it kind of begs the question
19:49why does Titan
19:50have such a thick
19:51dense atmosphere
19:52Titan retaining an atmosphere
19:57without a protective shield
19:58makes no sense
20:00Titan doesn't have a magnetic field
20:05but Saturn does
20:07so maybe there's
20:09some sort of interaction
20:10between the atmosphere
20:11of Titan
20:12and Saturn's giant magnetic field
20:14the gas giant Saturn
20:18generates a magnetic field
20:20around 600 times
20:21larger than Earth's
20:23large enough
20:26to shield Titan
20:28from the solar wind
20:29so Titan
20:32by itself
20:33is vulnerable
20:34Saturn is like
20:36the mothership
20:37it has this giant
20:38force field
20:39that it can use
20:40to protect Titan
20:41despite Saturn's embrace
20:46Titan still loses
20:48some of its atmosphere
20:49because occasionally
20:52the moon wanders away
20:54from its protective parents
20:56Titan orbits
20:59inside of that magnetic field
21:00mostly
21:02most of the time
21:03its orbit
21:03isn't perfectly circular
21:05it's slightly elliptical
21:06so as Titan orbits
21:10the planet
21:10for a little bit of time
21:12about 5% of its orbit
21:13it's actually slightly
21:14outside the magnetic field
21:15before dipping back in again
21:17but these short forays
21:21into the firing line
21:22don't cause any lasting damage
21:24what's really weird
21:28is that
21:29there's sort of
21:29a residual magnetic effect
21:31on Titan
21:32when it leaves
21:33Saturn's protective field
21:34it should just
21:35immediately drop to nothing
21:37but there still is
21:38this residual field
21:39protecting it
21:40from the solar wind
21:41it can maintain
21:43the memory
21:43of that magnetic field
21:45and still preserve
21:47some of that protection
21:48it's almost like
21:50Saturn is trying
21:51to teach Titan
21:52how to have
21:53a magnetic field
21:54and Titan can remember
21:55for a little bit
21:56but then it needs
21:56to come back home
21:57this magnetic memory
22:01could help support
22:03any life
22:04on Titan's surface
22:05providing a safe haven
22:07that's protected
22:08from the solar wind
22:09and Cassini
22:13spots a way
22:14Saturn's magnetism
22:16might also allow
22:17its moons
22:18to develop life
22:20one of the most amazing
22:23discoveries around Saturn
22:25was that
22:25its magnetic field
22:26is not just transporting
22:27charged particles
22:28from say
22:29the sun
22:30but it's also transporting
22:31material
22:32from one moon
22:33to another
22:34Saturn's magnetic field
22:39helps boost
22:39the chance
22:40of life
22:41on Titan
22:41by stealing material
22:44from its sister moon
22:45Enceladus
22:47magnetism is a strong force
22:50of course
22:51but to act
22:52on a scale
22:53and a range
22:53like this
22:54and maybe transport
22:55matter from moon
22:55to moon
22:56that's pretty cool
22:58Saturn's magnetic field
23:01smashes apart
23:03water molecules
23:04blasted out
23:05from Enceladus' geysers
23:06and carries
23:09the leftover oxygen
23:11to Titan
23:12the magnetic field
23:14of Saturn
23:14acts like
23:15an interlunar highway
23:18in the Saturn system
23:20transporting oxygen
23:21from Enceladus
23:23all the way
23:23to Titan
23:24but there's a problem
23:26when the oxygen
23:27tries to take
23:28the Titan exit
23:30off of this
23:31interlunar highway
23:32normally this oxygen
23:35wouldn't survive
23:36in the atmosphere
23:37of Titan
23:37it would react
23:38with the methane
23:38there and create
23:39carbon dioxide
23:40to get to the surface
23:44in one piece
23:44oxygen hitches a ride
23:47with something
23:48called
23:48a fullerene
23:49fullerene
23:55are these
23:55sort of
23:56soccer ball
23:56shaped molecules
23:57that are hollow
23:58if the oxygen atom
24:00gets in there
24:01it can be safely
24:01transported
24:02through Titan's
24:03atmosphere
24:03once on the surface
24:07the oxygen
24:08could help
24:09create amino acids
24:11the essential
24:12building blocks
24:13of proteins
24:14another stepping stone
24:17for life
24:18to emerge
24:18think of all
24:23the complex
24:24coincidences
24:25that have to happen
24:27for these
24:28chemical reactions
24:29to take place
24:30if Titan's orbit
24:32was any different
24:32it simply
24:33wouldn't exist
24:34Saturn protects
24:39any potential
24:40life
24:40on its moons
24:41and
24:44as it turns out
24:45the moons
24:46return the favor
24:47by helping create
24:50and maintain
24:52Saturn's iconic rings
24:55at 170,000 miles
25:13in diameter
25:13but only 30 feet thick
25:16in places
25:17Saturn's beautiful rings
25:20have always
25:21stolen the show
25:22but their origin
25:26is still a mystery
25:27Saturn has these
25:31beautiful rings
25:32that really define it
25:33as a planet
25:34but it's unique
25:35in the solar system
25:36in the sense that
25:36no other planet
25:37has such a big ring system
25:39all of the other gas giants
25:42have remnants
25:43of a ring
25:44kind of small
25:45thin
25:45dark rings
25:46but nothing
25:47like Saturn
25:48so something
25:49very different
25:50happened around Saturn
25:51a clue
25:53comes from
25:54the ring's
25:55composition
25:55they're around
25:5899%
25:59water ice
26:00giving the rings
26:02their sparkling
26:02appearance
26:03this leads
26:06astronomers
26:06to a bold theory
26:08we do not know
26:11how Saturn's icy rings
26:13formed
26:13we're not even sure
26:14how old they are
26:15but one idea
26:16is that
26:16they formed
26:17from ice
26:18that was existing
26:19previously
26:19on a moon
26:20how amazing is that
26:23several billion years ago
26:26Saturn
26:26may have been
26:28ringless
26:28with a large
26:31icy moon
26:32the moon
26:33was big enough
26:34that its gravity
26:35drew heavier stuff
26:36like rock
26:37to its core
26:37and lighter stuff
26:38like ice
26:39floated to the top
26:40we think the moon
26:43strayed too close
26:45to Saturn
26:45the gravity
26:49from Saturn
26:49could tear it apart
26:50and it could separate
26:53the ices
26:53from the rocky parts
26:55and the ices
26:56could stay in orbit
26:57and form our rings
26:58and the rocky parts
26:59would get swallowed up
27:00by Saturn
27:00the death of a large moon
27:08may have built the rings
27:10but they owe
27:15their current appearance
27:16to the moons
27:18that are still alive
27:20when you go back
27:23to Saturn's rings
27:24time and time again
27:25they're all slightly different
27:27they are changing
27:28they are braiding
27:29in and out of each other
27:30we had no idea
27:31there would be
27:32so much beauty
27:33and so much mystery
27:34in the rings
27:34the behavior
27:38of two of Saturn's moons
27:40Prometheus
27:41and Atlas
27:42which are embedded
27:44in the rings
27:44is especially surprising
27:46some of these
27:50smallest moons
27:50are interspersed
27:51within the ring system
27:53some of them
27:54some of them are doing
27:54something really bizarre
27:55in some cases
27:59it looks like
27:59the moons
28:00were shepherding
28:01the edges of the rings
28:02and keeping them
28:03in their place
28:04the moon's gravity
28:08cleans up the rings
28:09sometimes
28:12sculpting shapes
28:13in their wake
28:14Saturn's rings
28:17aren't static
28:18and there's some
28:19really fascinating
28:20interactions
28:21where moons
28:21are clearly pushing
28:22on the rings
28:23and causing weird
28:24and cool waves
28:25making the rings
28:27just that much
28:28more beautiful
28:28the whole dance
28:31between Saturn
28:32its moons
28:33its rings
28:34how they all
28:35are interconnected
28:36is just completely
28:37fascinating
28:38it's a dynamic
28:41amazing
28:42living
28:42geologically
28:43vibrant place
28:44Saturn's moons
28:49may keep
28:50the rings
28:50orderly
28:51but they can't
28:54explain
28:54why the rings
28:55are so clean
28:56almost pristine
28:59they're too shiny
29:03if they were
29:04billions of years
29:06old
29:06they should have
29:07collected a lot
29:08of dust
29:08by now
29:08and be a lot
29:09darker
29:09the fact that
29:10they're shiny
29:11kind of implies
29:12that maybe
29:13they're a lot
29:14younger than
29:14we first thought
29:15perhaps the rings
29:18we see today
29:19are a more
29:21recent upgrade
29:22the rings
29:24might only be
29:25a hundred million
29:26years old
29:26about the time
29:27of the dinosaurs
29:28so if the dinosaurs
29:30had invented
29:31telescopes
29:31they could have
29:33seen Saturn
29:33without rings
29:34and it makes you
29:35wonder
29:36is this the first
29:37ring system
29:37that Saturn had
29:38or was there
29:39another ring system
29:40that maybe
29:40slowly eroded away
29:42perhaps a comet
29:43or a body
29:44came in too close
29:45to Saturn
29:45and Saturn's
29:46gravity literally
29:46tore it apart
29:47and then we got
29:48a brand new
29:48ring system
29:49the later dinosaurs
29:53could have watched
29:53the rings form
29:54and then they would
29:56have been wiped
29:56out by an asteroid
29:57yeah should have
29:59built better
30:00telescopes dinosaurs
30:01sucks to be you
30:02we still don't know
30:07why the rings
30:08of Saturn
30:08are so clean
30:10it could be
30:12that the rings
30:13really are old
30:14and they have
30:14some sort of
30:15cleaning system
30:16which removes
30:16the dust from them
30:17making them
30:17look young
30:18or they may
30:19actually be young
30:21then this may be
30:22the seventh
30:23or eighth
30:23or whatever
30:24generation rings
30:25it is so different
30:27than any other
30:28planetary system
30:29and those mysteries
30:31still exist
30:32we have some idea
30:34what went on
30:35but there's a lot
30:37that we don't know
30:37about Saturn
30:38Cassini is changing
30:43that
30:43it's discovered
30:47a whole new
30:48moon making process
30:50with the rings
30:53taking the lead
30:55midway through
31:12its 13 year
31:13mission to Saturn
31:14Cassini captures
31:17an intriguing image
31:19a bright feature
31:23at the edge
31:24of one of Saturn's
31:25outermost rings
31:26something we'd
31:28never seen before
31:29I was really excited
31:33when we saw
31:33these images
31:34of Saturn's rings
31:35and it looked like
31:36there was a lump
31:37maybe a moon
31:38forming there
31:39which they nicknamed
31:40Peggy
31:40named after the mother-in-law
31:44of the scientist
31:44who discovered it
31:45Peggy
31:46was still too small
31:48to be considered
31:49a fully formed moon
31:50but nearby
31:54orbits a group
31:55of objects
31:56that are just big enough
31:58to be moons
31:59and they
32:02are really weird
32:04these moons
32:06are really unusual
32:07we don't think of them
32:09as like anything else
32:10we've seen
32:10they're kind of
32:11little fuzzy potatoes
32:13or maybe even
32:14like a ravioli
32:15is another one
32:16or a croissant
32:17why do we always
32:18come up with food
32:19but at the same time
32:20that's exactly
32:20what they look like
32:21the most bizarrely
32:23shaped moon of Saturn
32:24is Pan
32:25it's got these
32:26crisscrossing cracks
32:27just like bread
32:28and then around the
32:30outside is a belly band
32:31it's undulatory
32:32how would this get there
32:33Cassini
32:37discovered a clue
32:39like Saturn's rings
32:44these moons
32:45were made
32:45almost entirely
32:47of water ice
32:48they must have grown
32:52from tiny lumps
32:53trapped within the rings
32:55they're going to be
33:01extremely fragile
33:02kind of like a snowflake
33:04orbiting Saturn
33:05they can start
33:06drawing in material
33:07and then can grow
33:08you can actually
33:09imagine rolling up
33:10a snowball
33:11and accumulating
33:12more and more
33:12particles on the outside
33:14and in the same way
33:15you could accumulate
33:16these clumps
33:17in the rings
33:18and if they're near
33:19the edge of the rings
33:20perhaps they actually
33:21break free
33:22and go out
33:23to form tiny moons
33:24the size of these
33:28space snowballs
33:30tens of miles across
33:32or less
33:33helps explain
33:35their unusual shapes
33:36the size of the moon
33:41actually affects its shape
33:42in that once you get
33:44below a certain size
33:45threshold you cannot be
33:46round anymore
33:46that's because the
33:48strength of the rock
33:48or the ice in this case
33:49is too great to be
33:51overcome by gravity
33:52and so the kind of
33:53oblong shapes can be
33:54maintained
33:55add in a few collisions
33:58and you get
34:00Saturn's ravioli
34:01and croissant
34:02shaped moons
34:03it's a bizarre process
34:07but it leads to
34:08a beautiful form
34:09we know the moons
34:11affect the rings
34:12but it looks like
34:13in this case
34:14the rings affect
34:15the moons too
34:15they're connected
34:16in both directions
34:17the rings form
34:25a moon factory
34:26capable of building
34:32countless generations
34:33of new worlds
34:34this is a dance
34:39of physics
34:40if moonlets can form
34:43by these icy ring
34:44particles
34:45they'll grow
34:46and then their natural
34:47gravitational interaction
34:48with the rings
34:49will make them move out
34:50they keep growing
34:51as they move out
34:52but then another moon
34:53forms where the first
34:54one was
34:54so you keep getting
34:56these growing moons
34:57right and this process
34:58repeats like on a
34:59conveyor belt
35:00and what you wind up
35:01with is bigger moons
35:02orbiting farther out
35:03from Saturn
35:04and smaller ones
35:05orbiting closer in
35:05but Saturn's
35:10conveyor belt
35:10will eventually
35:11break down
35:12when ultraviolet light
35:18from the sun
35:19interacts with ring
35:21particles
35:22it throws their steady
35:24orbit around Saturn
35:26out of whack
35:27the sun energizes the rings
35:31and it gives them a charge
35:32this charge means
35:33they can get picked up
35:34by the magnetic field
35:36of Saturn
35:36so these little tiny
35:37charged particles
35:38that are lifted out
35:39of the rings
35:40fall along the magnetic
35:41field lines
35:42rain down into
35:43Saturn's atmosphere
35:44the charged particles
35:49are tiny ice crystals
35:51they rain down
35:54onto Saturn
35:54enough to fill
35:58an Olympic-sized
35:59swimming pool
36:00every second
36:01in less than
36:06a hundred million years
36:08Saturn's rings
36:09will be gone
36:10there will be
36:15no material
36:16to build new moons
36:17Saturn's moons
36:21and rings
36:21they almost make me
36:22feel bittersweet
36:23because they show you
36:24the beauty
36:25of what physics
36:26can create
36:27but also
36:27the fleetingness
36:29they'll be gone soon
36:30and that makes me sad
36:31the closer we look
36:36the more intriguing
36:38the Saturn system
36:39becomes
36:39and now
36:46scientists
36:48have an audacious
36:49new plan
36:50to fly a drone
36:55on one of
36:56Saturn's moons
37:09Saturn is one of
37:11the most dynamic
37:12places in the solar system
37:14we want to go back there
37:18to explore its moons
37:20up close
37:20and hunt directly
37:22for life 2.0
37:24for so long
37:28we've been emphasizing
37:29that to have a habitable planet
37:30you have to be warm
37:31you have to be close
37:32to your star
37:32in fact the most likely chance
37:35we have to find life
37:36may be way in the outer solar system
37:38in Saturn's moons
37:39but we won't know for sure
37:42until we send another mission there
37:44specifically to look for life
37:45the Huygens probe
37:48gave us a tantalizing glimpse
37:51of Titan's surface
37:52but it wasn't equipped
37:58to search for life
37:59now
38:01scientists are developing
38:03Dragonfly
38:04a space helicopter
38:07that can search for life
38:10Dragonfly is an amazing mission
38:14we're sending this
38:15to Titan
38:16to better understand
38:17how life might arise
38:18in a very different context
38:20than Earth
38:20one thing we know
38:24absolutely for certain
38:25is that Titan
38:25has interesting
38:26complex chemistry
38:28the question now
38:29is does that chemistry
38:31actually turn into biology
38:33a million dollar question
38:37is this a living world
38:40April
38:482021
38:49we test the concept
38:54of a space helicopter
38:56ingenuity
39:02making the first remote flight
39:04on another world
39:05launches into the thin
39:07Martian atmosphere
39:08Mars is a really difficult place
39:12to fly
39:12because the atmosphere
39:13is 100 times thinner
39:15than Earth's
39:16and remember
39:17it's the atmosphere
39:18that provides the support
39:19and the lift
39:20for a helicopter to fly
39:21so in order for ingenuity
39:23to fly
39:23it had to spin
39:24very fast
39:25in order to even
39:26get itself off the ground
39:27fortunately
39:32Titan's thick atmosphere
39:34is much more
39:36helicopter friendly
39:37the contrast
39:40between ingenuity
39:41and the Dragonfly mission
39:43is really funny
39:43because Mars has
39:45almost no atmosphere
39:46less than 1%
39:47the atmospheric pressure
39:48of Earth
39:49on Titan
39:50you have exactly
39:51the opposite
39:52the air pressure
39:53near the surface of Titan
39:54can be four times
39:55as much
39:55as the air pressure
39:56on Earth
39:56so for a helicopter
39:58or something like a drone
39:59something like an octocopter
40:01the lower the gravity is
40:02and the denser
40:03the atmosphere
40:04the better you can fly
40:05so Titan just begs
40:08to be explored
40:08because you get
40:09a lot of lift
40:10and you can actually
40:11carry heavy instruments
40:12with you
40:12it allows you
40:15to fly through
40:15the atmosphere
40:16collect samples
40:17and determine
40:18what the prebiotic chemistry
40:19is on that moon
40:20if ever there was
40:23a world built
40:24for flying drones
40:25it's Titan
40:26Dragonfly is scheduled
40:29to launch in 2027
40:31arriving at Titan
40:35around 7 years later
40:36completing the journey
40:38of moon discovery
40:39that began
40:41with Voyager
40:42and Cassini
40:43we completely transformed
40:48our picture
40:48of the Saturn system
40:49the rings
40:50and the moons
40:51it's a far more
40:52complex environment
40:53than we ever dreamed
40:54possible
40:55the moons have come alive
40:57right
40:57they're not boring
40:58dead ice balls
40:58and it just begs
41:00generation and for
41:01after generation
41:01of spacecraft follow-up
41:02we're only just
41:06beginning to unravel
41:07the secrets
41:08of Saturn's moons
41:10and with more than
41:1380 to explore
41:14the Saturn system
41:16is a gift
41:17that'll keep on giving
41:19Saturn was the very
41:24first thing
41:24I ever saw
41:25through a telescope
41:26when I was a kid
41:26and here I am
41:28clearly I was inspired
41:30by Saturn
41:31by its beauty
41:31Saturn has always
41:33been my favorite planet
41:34everything you want
41:36is there
41:37violence
41:38colliding moons
41:39how new rings
41:40form
41:41new moons
41:41form over time
41:42and there might
41:45be life there
41:46there might be life
41:46in more than one
41:48place there
41:48one destination
41:50one planetary
41:51zip code
41:52gives you all of that
41:53I say go back to Saturn
41:54I say go back to Saturn
41:54I say go back to Saturn
41:56my time
41:57I say go back to Saturn
41:58I say go back to Trojan
41:59we grandiose
42:00my time
42:00and I say king
42:01comes «
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42:06free