2023-05-17 11:37:24
Saturn’s rings are significantly younger than the planet. Two studies come to this conclusion. But there is one thing that researchers still don’t know: how the ring system came regarding.
Boulder – The planets in our solar system have existed for 4.5 billion years – but apparently at least one of the nine planets has changed its appearance dramatically in the past 400 million years: Saturn. Two new studies have looked at the large ring system that surrounds the planet and concluded that they are only 100 to 400 million years old.
For both studies, the research teams evaluated data from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, which was on board NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. The measuring device has examined how much dust is in the vicinity of Saturn. Sascha Kempf (University of Colorado Boulder), lead author of a study that in the journal Science Advances published explains his approach as follows: “Think of the rings like the carpet in your house. Once you have laid out a clean carpet, all you have to do is wait. The dust will settle on the carpet. The same goes for the rings.”
“Lord of the Rings”: Saturn’s ring system is younger than the planet
Richard Durisen, lead author of the second study on Saturn’s rings (published in the journal Icarus), complemented 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 there “in the last few hundred Something dramatic happened millions of years ago.” The research assumes that a large part of the now 145 known moons of Saturn might have been formed by a collision in the orbit of the planet. The formation of the ring system might also be related to this.
Saturn’s rings have been a subject of research for more than 400 years. In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed them through a telescope for the first time – but did not know what he saw. In the 1800s, the Scottish explorer James Clerk Maxwell realized that the rings might not be solid but were made up of many small parts. Researchers now know that Saturn has seven rings made up of innumerable chunks of ice. The rings extend almost 280,000 kilometers from the planet’s surface into space and can be easily seen with small telescopes. Saturn owes its nickname “Lord of the Rings” to them.
Ring system of Saturn: How did the seven rings form?
“We know roughly how old the rings are, but that doesn’t solve any of our other problems,” emphasizes researcher Kempf in one Statement: “We still don’t know how these rings formed in the first place.” Originally, researchers assumed that the rings formed around the same time as the planet Saturn formed. 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 far less than a gram of dust lands on every square meter of Saturn’s rings each year — not much, but the material accumulates over time. Research suggests that the rings may already be disappearing once more. A NASA study showed some time ago that the ice in Saturn’s rings is slowly raining down on the planet and might disappear completely in 100 million years. For the researcher Kempf, the rings are a stroke of luck: “If the rings are short-lived and dynamic, why are we seeing them now?” he asks himself, adding: “That’s too lucky.”
Saturn’s rings are to be explored further
Durisen looks to 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 its deep ocean.” Spitting out water, ice and even organic material.” The astronomy professor emeritus continues: “We may even find the building blocks of life itself on Enceladus.” (tab)
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