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Saturn Put A Ring On It Relatively Recently, Study Says (npr.org)
Saturn is famous for its lovely rings, but a new study suggests the planet has spent most of its 4.5 billion years without them. From a report: That's because the rings are likely only 10 million to 100 million years old, according to a newly published report in the journal Science that's based on findings from NASA's Cassini probe. Cassini spent some 13 years orbiting Saturn before plunging down and slamming into its atmosphere. During its final orbits, the spacecraft dove between the planet and its rings. That let scientists measure the gravitational effect of the rings and get a good estimate of the ring material's mass.
What they found is that it's only about 40 percent of the mass of Saturn's moon Mimas, which is way smaller than Earth's moon. This small mass suggests that the rings are relatively young. That's because the rings seem to be made of extremely pure water ice, suggesting that the bright white rings have not existed long enough to be contaminated by the bombardment of messy, dirty comets that would be expected to occur over billions of years. Some scientists thought it was possible that darker debris from comets might lie beneath the bright ice, undetectable to their instruments, but this new study shows that isn't the case.
What they found is that it's only about 40 percent of the mass of Saturn's moon Mimas, which is way smaller than Earth's moon. This small mass suggests that the rings are relatively young. That's because the rings seem to be made of extremely pure water ice, suggesting that the bright white rings have not existed long enough to be contaminated by the bombardment of messy, dirty comets that would be expected to occur over billions of years. Some scientists thought it was possible that darker debris from comets might lie beneath the bright ice, undetectable to their instruments, but this new study shows that isn't the case.
IF they are young, where did they come from and why are they nearly pure water?
Seems to me that is the real question here...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Not only are Saturn's rings young, but it appears they are going away soon (astronomically speaking), so if you think about it we are all kind of amazingly lucky to be around while they are here to admire the amazing beauty they offer!
It also completely removes any inhibitions to mine them for valuable resources.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Where did it come from? Was there a water containing moot that got crashed into? Or did a comet crash into an object orbiting Saturn, or did Saturn pass though a comet debris field and collect the objects?
It would be very interesting if they could collect samples of this ice and compare it to Earth's.
It's been believed that water came here via comets, I wonder if those are the same comets that made up those "pure ice" rings
We all know that Saturn's rings were created about 3 million years ago, when the aliens who built the Monolith built the Star Gate.
Read the documentary book 2001: A Space Odyssey. Note that the film version does not contain this portion of history.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Such assumptions you make about folks... Shesh..
Sometimes asking for "science" to explain stuff is actually the best way to reach them and fulfill Acts 1:8-9. Certainly whacking them over the head isn't going to work, or do you suppose it does? My experience says no.
These numbers of billions of the years are the false evidence that they did.
I've another opinion. These rings maybe the consequence of fragmenting and destroying their natural satellites. It's not a fact but my opinion.
And these rocks from the rings may have an age of thousands of years instead of 1'000'000'000s of years.
Or perhaps the universe is younger than they assume. Perhaps those pesky Creationists are correct after all.
But no one wants to admit that possibility...
Hello Miss Mash,
The title has mention about a "spacecraft dove."
Please elaborate on what a spacecraft dove is, or correct the error.
Thanks!
Editor Tim
(I run another news site.)
my suspicion: an ice moon.
i.e.: an object big enough to have some significant gravity, enough gravity so the heavier elements can sink to the bottom, while the water/ice remains on its surface.
(as opposed to commets which barely have enough gravity to hold the wet dust mud together)
if such moon gets ripped appart (getting to close and tidal forces) the ice will be relatively clean ( but then you'll also be having rock fragments ).
is there any speciallist that could help us ?
(cue in McCoy's "i'm a Doctro, Jim...")
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Saturn must'a liked it.
#DeleteChrome
Pretty much everywhere we look in our solar system lately we keep getting surprised by unexpected signs of youth. Young surface of Pluto, Saturn's rings, volcanically-active Io, rings around the Centaur asteroids, warm temperatures & carbonates on asteroid Ceres, ice plumes on Enceladus, etc.
My experience says no.
To quote Steve Wozniak: "Science is the religion."
it only just got it's rings, and it's already losing them;
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/n...
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.