The results of three studies published in May revealed information about when Saturn’s rings appear and predict when they will disappear.
For many years, scientists have debated the age and origin of rings around Saturn (also called Saturn’s rings). Some have argued that the belt is younger than expected because it has not been eroded and darkened by meteor impacts.
The data collected during the Cassini mission support this hypothesis. The mission’s probes orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.
Rings around Saturn
Rings around Saturn – (Illustration: NASA).
According to the researchers, the rings of the gas giant appeared long after the initial formation of Saturn.
“Our definitive conclusion is that the Saturn’s rings must be relatively young by astronomical standards, only a few hundred million years old“Professor Richard Durisen, one of the authors, told ϹNN.
It is believed that these rings are still forming when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
Saturn’s rings are mostly made up of ice, a small percentage of rock dust created in space by the collision of asteroid debris and micrometeorites.
Over the past 13 years around Saturn, Cassini’s instruments have collected 163 dust particles from Saturn’s rings. Further analysis, the team recognized this belt “to do the housework” surprisingly.
e “to do the housework” This means that this ring doesn’t seem too long to be filled with cosmic dust. Cassini also observed that Saturn’s rings lost several tons of mass every second.
It means these belts will only exist a few hundred million years. In astronomical terms, such a time is not much.
“Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, astronomically speaking, after Saturn’s rings have worn down, they will look more like the sparse rings of Uranus.”added Ƥaul Estrada, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
One theory is that the smaller rings around some planets in the solar system could be the result of rings around Saturn.
Future space missions to study some of Saturn’s moons should open up many other solutions, such as the events that created the rings, according to CNN.
Post source: Tuoi Tre
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The results of three studies published in May revealed information about when Saturn’s rings appear and predict when they will disappear.
