Milankovitch Cycles - Other Planets in The Solar System

Other Planets in The Solar System

Other planets in the Solar System have been discovered to have Milankovitch cycles. Mostly these cycles are not as intense or complex as the Earth's cycles, but do have a global geological impact with respect to the movement of mobile solids like Water or Nitrogen ices or hydrocarbon lakes.

  • Mars's polar caps vary in extent due to orbital instability related to a latent Milankovitch cycle.
  • Saturn's moon Titan has a ~60,000-year cycle that changes the location of the methane lakes.
  • Neptune's moon Triton has a similar variation to Titan with respect to migration of solid nitrogen deposits over long time scales.

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