Published February 2026 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Paving the Way for Future Space Missions in the Context of High Tidal Dissipation in the Saturnian System

  • 1. ROR icon Sorbonne University
  • 2. ROR icon Lagrange Laboratory
  • 3. ROR icon Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • 4. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 5. ROR icon Delft University of Technology
  • 6. ROR icon Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 7. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon University of Oxford
  • 9. ROR icon Southwest Research Institute
  • 10. ROR icon University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 11. ROR icon University of Bologna

Abstract

The recent discovery of strong tidal dissipation in Saturn's interior has radically changed our view of the Saturnian system. While some questions are naturally answered by the new paradigm, others are emerging and require further measurement. This article presents the next key questions to be addressed by future space missions and analysis. Suggestions for space measurements to discriminate between different scenarios concerning the formation, evolution and internal state of the Saturnian system are given.

Copyright and License

© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Acknowledgement

This paper resulted from the Workshop “New Vision of the Saturnian System in the Context of a Highly Dissipative Saturn” held at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern (Switzerland).

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Journal Article: https://rdcu.be/e4LxD (ReadCube)

Dates

Submitted
2025-09-04
Accepted
2026-02-02
Available
2026-02-13
Published