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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
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.
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?
That's the problem. Comets are slushy mud balls, not pure water. So the rings are not just some parts of a comet that got caught in orbit around Saturn, at least not directly. It's also why I'm asking the question. IF it's not possible for the rings to have come from a comet because of their composition, where did they come from?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
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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.)
Did you read it or have you read it?
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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.