The rings’ current mass, as measured by Cassini, fits well with an ancient origin followed by spreading and moon formation, they added (though the initial ring mass remains unknown).Ĭrida therefore thinks that Saturn’s rings are ancient - as old as the solar system. This has led to the formation of moons and moonlets, and considerable mass loss from the rings, Crida and his colleagues said. Rings lead to an outward transfer of angular momentum, resulting in theĪt distances greater than 87,000 miles (140,000 km) from Saturn, the ring material’s self-gravity trumps the gas giant’s tidal forces. “Interactions between the ice blocks that constitute the Indeed, 15.4 millionīillion metric tons “is actually consistent with the expected dynamicalĮvolution of primordial, massive rings,” the researchers wrote in the Then there’s the ring system’s total mass. If that’s the case, the rings would appear to be much younger than they actually are. “One possible explanation is that the (unknown) process responsible for the erosion of the rings and the launch of these nanograins is actually ‘cleaning’ the rings, preferentially removing silicates rather than water ice,” Crida and his team wrote in the new study, which was published online today (Sept. This stuff is almost certainly coming from the rings, the researchers said. Maybe it’s unusually high right now - due to a (hypothetical) recent collision of distant Kuiper Belt objects, for example - and the rings were polluted much less intensely for most of their history.Ĭrida and his colleagues also note that, during the grand finale, Cassini spotted organics in Saturn’s upper atmosphere as well as solid grains in the gap between the gas giant and its innermost ring. For starters, the scientists said, the bombardment rate may vary over time. Much more “polluted” with silicates, organic molecules and otherīut there are some serious issues with this interpretation, argues the new study, which was led by Aurélien Crida of the Université Côte d’Azur and the Institut Universitaire de France. Given these two figures, and the bombardment rate by micrometeoroids, ![]() (For perspective, 15.4 million billion metric tons is about 40% the mass of the Saturn moon Mimas, which is 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, wide.) Such studies cite the rings’ composition - more than 95% pure water ice - and total mass, which NASA’s Cassini mission pegged at about 15.4 million billion metric tons shortly after the probe’s epic “grand finale” at Saturn in 2017. This latter hypothesis has been gaining steam in the last few years, with multiple papers reporting that the rings could be even younger than the dinosaurs. The great Saturn ring debate is far from settled, a new study suggests.įor years, scientists have argued about the age of Saturn’s famous rings: Are they ancient, dating to the birth of the planet itself? Or did the ring system form more recently, in just the past hundred million years or so?
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