Saturn’s rings are smaller than previously thought – and they could soon be gone

Saturn’s rings are much smaller than Earth’s. Two studies reached this conclusion. But there’s one thing researchers don’t yet know: how the ring system arose.

Boulder – The planets in our solar system have existed for 4.5 billion years – but at least one of the nine planets appears to have changed appearance dramatically in the past 400 million years: Saturn. Two new studies looked at the great ring system that encircles the planet and concluded that they are only between 100 and 400 million years old.

For both studies, research teams evaluated data from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, which was aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. The instrument checked the amount of dust present near Saturn. Sasha Kempf (University of Colorado Boulder), lead author of the study in the journal Science advances published He explains his approach as follows: “Think of the rings like the carpet in your home. Once you have a clean carpet in place, all you have to do is wait. The dust will settle on the carpet. The same goes for the rings.”

The Lord of the Rings: Saturn’s ring system smaller than the planet

Richard Doresen, lead author of the second study on Saturn’s rings (Published in the journal Icarus), complement in one communication: “Our inescapable conclusion is that Saturn’s rings must be relatively young by astronomical standards, only a few hundred million years old.” Looking at Saturn’s satellite system, there is further evidence that “in the last few hundreds of years, something exciting happened millions of years ago.” The research hypothesizes that a significant portion of Saturn’s 145 currently known moons may have formed as a result of a collision in the planet’s orbit. The formation of the ring system could also be related to this.

Saturn’s rings have been the subject of research for more than 400 years. In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first noticed them through a telescope – but he didn’t know what he saw. In the 19th century, Scottish explorer James Clerk Maxwell realized that rings cannot be solid but are made up of many small parts. Researchers now know that Saturn has seven rings made up of countless pieces of ice. The rings extend nearly 280,000 km from the planet’s surface into space and can be easily seen with small telescopes. Saturn owes them the title “Lord of the Rings”.

Saturn’s Ring System: How did the seven rings form?

Researcher Kempf confirms in one formulations: “We still don’t know how these rings formed in the first place.” Originally, the researchers assumed that the rings formed around the same time as the planet Saturn. But the rings are incredibly clean, considering the dust that roams the solar system all the time. “It’s almost impossible to stay that clean,” says Kempf.

His research team estimates that much less than a gram of dust falls on each square meter of Saturn’s rings each year — not much, but the material builds up over time. Research indicates that the rings may actually disappear again. A study conducted by NASA some time ago showed that the ice in Saturn’s rings slowly rains down on the planet and could completely disappear within 100 million years. For researcher Kempf, the rings are a stroke of luck: “If rings are so short-lived and dynamic, why do we see them now?” he asks himself, adding, “This is so lucky.”

Saturn’s rings should be explored further

Durisen looks into the future of Saturn research: “If we can figure out what happened in this system a few hundred million years ago to form the rings, maybe we can also figure out why Saturn’s moon Enceladus emerged from the depths of its ocean.” Water, ice and even organic matter.” The professor emeritus of astronomy continues: “We may find the building blocks of life itself on Enceladus. ” (unpaid bill)