Saturn's Probable Interior: An Exploration of Saturn's Potential Interior Density Structures

TL;DR

This study uses a Bayesian approach with Cassini gravity data to explore Saturn's interior density profiles, revealing a well-constrained outer region with metal enrichment and a less constrained core that may be dilute or gradient-rich.

Contribution

It introduces a model-independent, probabilistic framework for constraining Saturn's interior structure using gravity data, avoiding assumptions about composition or thermal state.

Findings

Outer half of Saturn's radius is well constrained.

Evidence suggests significant metal enrichment in the outer layers.

Inner core likely to be dilute or have composition gradients.

Abstract

The gravity field of a giant planet is typically our best window into its interior structure and composition. Through comparison of a model planet's calculated gravitational potential with the observed potential, inferences can be made about interior quantities, including possible composition and the existence of a core. Necessarily, a host of assumptions go into such calculations, making every inference about a giant planet's structure strongly model dependent. In this work we present a more general picture by setting Saturn's gravity field, as measured during the \emph{Cassini} Grand Finale, as a likelihood function driving a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo exploration of the possible interior density profiles. The result is a posterior distribution of the interior structure that is not tied to assumed composition, thermal state, or material equations of state. Constraints on interior structure derived in this Bayesian framework are necessarily less informative, but are also less biased and more general. These empirical and probabilistic constraints on the density structure are our main data product which we archive for continued analysis. We find that the outer half of Saturn's radius is relatively well constrained, and we interpret our findings as suggesting a significant metal enrichment, in line with atmospheric abundances from remote sensing. As expected, the inner half of Saturn's radius is less well-constrained by gravity, but we generally find solutions that include a significant density enhancement, which can be interpreted as a core, although this core is often lower in density and larger in radial extent than typically found by standard models. This is consistent with a dilute core and/or composition gradients.