SATURN’S iconic rings will eventually disappear – and we have a good idea when.
The stunning belts of ice, rock and dust are slowly breaking apart.
2
And it’s believed that we’re just a few hundred million years away from their total disappearance.
Scientists still aren’t entirely sure how the rings formed.
But they make Saturn one of the most instantly recognisable planets in our Solar System.
Sadly, the phenomenon won’t last forever – and “ring rain” is to blame.
This destructive process – revealed to The Atlantic by astronomers – means parts of the belt are being disturbed, pulled into Saturn by gravity, and ultimately vaporised.
It’s estimated that 10 tonnes of “ring matter” are falling into Saturn every single second.
Nasa has studied the rings of Saturn extensively using through its Cassini mission.
And at the current rate of degradation, it’s estimated that the entire ring system of Saturn will vanish in around 300million years.
Most read in News Tech
But Nasa says the core rings may have “less than 100million years to live”.
That means Earthlings still have plenty of time to explore the stunning space phenomenon.
It also means that Saturn’s rings are still only in the early stages of their life.
The rings are estimated to be between 10million and 100million years old.
For context, dinosaurs walked the Earth as recently as 66million years ago – while Earth is a whopping 4.543billion.
Put a ring on it
The rings of Saturn are mostly made of water ice particles, as well as some rock debris and dust.
It’s the most extensive ring system of any planet in our Solar System.
The dense main rings extend from 4,300 miles away to 50,000 miles away from Saturn’s equator.
They have an estimated local thickness that ranges from 10 metres to 1 kilometre.
The rings are caught in a balancing act around the planet.
Gravity is drawing them inwards, but the speed of their orbit wants to fling them out to space.
But latest research suggests gravity is winning, with Saturn’s rings expected to disappear within 100million and 300million years.
“We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,” said James O’Donoghue, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, speaking in 2018.
He went on: “We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime,” O’Donoghue explained.
“However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today.”
Ring mystery
Scientists still don’t know exactly how the rings of Saturn formed.
One theory is that small, icy moons orbiting Saturn collided, smashing up into bits and creating rings.
It’s also possible these icy moons were struck by large comets or asteroids, or were broken apart by gravity.
The second popular theory is that the rings were never part of a moon, but simply leftover material from the formation of Saturn.
2
Find out more about science
Want to know more about the weird and wonderful world of science? From the Moon to the human body, we have you covered…
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
