Study says Saturn’s rings are younger than planet

Researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder, United States, have published a study in the journal Science Advances. predicting that Saturn’s rings are young compared to the planet’s age. The calculation was made by estimating the amount of dust contained in the rings.

The main postcard of Saturn may not have been born with it. The gas giant rings are only 400 million years old, and their holders are about 4.5 billion years old, according to the researchers.

But how did the researchers manage to predict this age?

The answer may not be so obvious and it may sound strange, but they estimated it from the amount of dust accumulated in the rings.. Examining data obtained by the Cassini probe between 2004 and 2017, the researchers estimated the proportions of materials that make up the rings.

The results showed that 98% of the material present was pure fruity ice crystals, whereas only 2% was cosmic dust. By analogy with a rug, they explain that the longer a rug stays in an environment, the more dust it collects.

For researchers, despite billions of kilograms of dust thrown into the rings each year over millions of years of existence, the rings are still very clean and bright, reflecting a lot of light.

These factors main signs of low accumulation of cosmic dust, indicating its youth and subsequent formation. But the childishness of Saturn’s rings answers only one of the dozens of questions still permeating the planet, such as: How were Saturn’s rings formed?

According to one theory, a giant moon could have exploded thanks to the planet’s massive gravity. Its debris spawned new moons, while dust that did not settle on the planet’s surface remained around, forming the well-known rings.

And that theory may have been strengthened by the discovery of 62 new moons orbiting the planet. In total, Saturn has 145 natural satellites..

But Saturn’s ring beauty won’t last forever. The gravitational force of the planet continues to pull the suspended particles towards it, so this unique sign of the gas giant has an expiration date estimated to be a few million more years.