Meet Hyperion. A spongy moon of Saturn. The interesting thing is, it might explain why Titan has an atmosphere!
400 km across. About the size of Switzerland. It's not round. Looks like a potato. 🥔
Basically a rubber pile with enormous pores. It's also the least dense moon in the solar system. 46% empty space.
Most moons are tidally locked. Always show the same face to their planets. But Hyperion gets crazy and tumbles around.
It's because of Titan.
With every 4 orbits of Titan, Hyperion makes 3 orbits. So Titan constantly nudges and destabilizes it.
Titan has an atmosphere. A thick one. But where did it come from?
Deep in Saturn’s history, Titan collided with a moon called Proto-Hyperion.
The surface melted. Craters erased. Gases in its interior escaped, and formed the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, a lot of debris was flung out. It orbited Saturn. Made a ring. Then condenced back to make Hyperion.
When small stones clump together, they leave tiny pores. Gravity isn't strong enough to crush them. That's why Hyperion is so soft and porous.
The craters are deep. There's an interesting reason behind it.
When an asteroid hits, it sends a shockwave— A shock wave so strong, it creates a ripple in the ground. A crater.
But on Hyperion, it's more like punching through wet clay. The shock is absorbed. The thing goes deep. Craters here look more like wells.