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Saturn's Moons and Rings May Be Younger Than The Dinosaurs (space.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the the-jurassic-period dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: Some of Saturn's icy moons may have been formed after many dinosaurs roamed the Earth. New computer modeling of the Saturnian system suggests the rings and moons may be no more than 100 million years old. A new computer model suggests that the Saturnian moons Tethys, Dione and Rhea haven't seen the kinds of changes in their orbital tilts that are typical for moons that have lived in the system and interacted with other moons over long periods of time. In other words, these appear to be very young moons. "Moons are always changing their orbits. That's inevitable," Matija Cuk, principal investigator at the SETI Institute and one of the authors of the new research, said in a statement. "But that fact allows us to use computer simulations to tease out the history of Saturn's inner moons. Doing so, we find that they were most likely born during the most recent 2 percent of the planet's history."

36 comments

  1. Not the younglings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Young moons hey? So when will they get big and strong like mummy and daddy?

  2. Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    If the moons and rings are younger than the dinosaurs, that means they formed in the past 4,000 years or so. I can believe the moons are younger than the dinosaurs, but the Bible is right about the age of the dinosaurs.

    1. Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The article is wrong. It has been settled that the Heavens were created on day 1. Therefore, the dinosaurs are at least 3 days younger than Saturn and its decorations.

  3. TL;DR by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1

    We're doomed.

    How square are oranges?

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:TL;DR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mr. Oranges isn't square at all.

  4. Don't be silly.... by sconeu · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows that Saturn's rings were created when the monolith aliens blew up a moon to build the Star Gate. They're only 3 million years old.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  5. HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME! ..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Help me! I'm looking for an old troll circa 2001. I'm looking for the one usually posted with the subject beginning "HEAR NOW MY GNU/HOLY WORDS" and the text starts with "ALLAH CONDONES THEE ANAL SEX." I've been searching stories from 2001 and haven't found this troll yet. Can anyone find me a link to it? I would be greatly appreciative of the help. Thanks!

  6. Crasho by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    A big smash-up of some kind probably happened fairly recently to form the rings and some of the moons. I suspect 2 medium-sized moons collided, or a moon and visiting asteroid.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Crasho by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe the orbit of a moon got perturbed so it got too close to the planet, causing it to get torn apart by tidal forces.

    2. Re:Crasho by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      That may explain the rings, but probably not new moons, unless it was a really large moon.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  7. Anything that predates the Bible... by EzInKy · · Score: 1

    ...has no meaning. Of course Jihadists will kill anyone who questions the authoritary of their good books.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  8. How did they calculate? by WoOS · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought the general three body problem was already intractable. Now they did it for 62?

    1. Re:How did they calculate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Numerically. There is a family of integrators designed for integrating over long times that are stable and conserve the energy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplectic_integrator.

    2. Re: How did they calculate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems like they should be using disintegrators in this case.

    3. Re:How did they calculate? by osu-neko · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the physical literature about the n-body problem (n 3), sometimes reference is made to the impossibility of solving the n-body problem (via employing the above approach). However, care must be taken when discussing the 'impossibility' of a solution, as this refers only to the method of first integrals (compare the theorems by Abel and Galois about the impossibility of solving algebraic equations of degree five or higher by means of formulas only involving roots).

      See here.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    4. Re:How did they calculate? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Only to snobby pure mathematicians. You can't actually solve it, but you can come 'close enough' with a finite-time-interval approximation. The only limitation on accuracy is how much processor time you've got to throw at the problem.

    5. Re:How did they calculate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, just as we can do Linear Algebra, but not non-linear Algebra... unless you allow those not-perfectly precise numerical solvers to do things.

      Newton's method, so primitive, but so powerful.

    6. Re:How did they calculate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's an ironically snobby way to demonstrate that you have a very severe misconception of what the term "pure mathematics" means. It's not "mathematics for purists", and the concept of "good enough" is used extensively.

      CAPTCHA: unjustly. Good one, CAPTCHA

  9. Re:This will piss off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the Republicans.

    Fuck the Republicans! There is real science to be done!

  10. That's nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm younger than the dinosaurs too

    1. Re:That's nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm younger than the dinosaurs too

      But your mama ain't!

    2. Re:That's nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She ain't smaller either!

  11. What happened... by messymerry · · Score: 1

    What happened during the prior 4 billion years? Maybe these moonlets are constantly being born and subsequently torn apart...

    --
    Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
  12. Sailor who by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did anyone else read that as "sailor moon"

  13. Dinosaurs still do roam the earth. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    We are pretty good in the skies too.

    1. Re:Dinosaurs still do roam the earth. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dino Flintstone? Is that you?

  14. Dinosaurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Some of Saturn's icy moons may have been formed after many dinosaurs roamed the Earth."

    Are you implying that some dinosaurs were involved in the creation of these moons ?

  15. Ancient war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The evidence builds. Once we begin to thoroughly explore the solar system the evidence will be irrefutable...

    The dinosaurs didn't die of a random accident. There was a great war. Destroying their colonies on what we call Mars, destroyed that planets atmosphere. Colonies on Jupiter's moons were destroyed. The colony on Saturn's inner moon dug in so well, it became necessary to destroy the moon entirely, creating the rings. Home fared better, but the damage was so severe the civilization was destroyed and a mass extinction resulted.