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New analysis means that Saturn’s rings could also be older than they appear — probably as previous because the planet.
As a substitute of being a youthful 400 million years previous as generally thought, the icy, shimmering rings could possibly be round 4.5 billion years previous identical to Saturn, a Japanese-led staff reported Monday.
The scientists surmise Saturn’s rings could also be pristine not as a result of they’re younger however as a result of they’re dirt-resistant.
Saturn’s rings are lengthy regarded as between 100 million and 400 million years previous primarily based on greater than a decade of observations by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft earlier than its demise in 2017.
Pictures by Cassini confirmed no proof of any darkening of the rings by impacting micrometeoroids — area rock particles smaller than a grain of sand — prompting scientists to conclude the rings shaped lengthy after the planet.
By pc modeling, the Institute of Science Tokyo’s Ryuki Hyodo and his staff demonstrated that micrometeoroids vaporize as soon as slamming into the rings, with little if any darkish and soiled residue left behind. They discovered that the ensuing charged particles get sucked towards Saturn or out into area, protecting the rings spotless and difficult the infant rings principle. Their outcomes seem within the journal Nature Geoscience.
Hyodo mentioned it is doable Saturn’s rings could possibly be someplace between the 2 excessive ages — across the midway mark of two.25 billion years previous. However the photo voltaic system was far more chaotic throughout its childhood with giant planetary-type objects migrating and interacting all over, simply the form of state of affairs that may be conducive to producing Saturn’s rings.
“Contemplating the photo voltaic system’s evolutionary historical past, it’s extra doubtless that the rings shaped nearer to” Saturn’s earliest occasions, he mentioned in an electronic mail.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Academic Media Group. The AP is solely answerable for all content material.
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The Unbiased
#Saturns #rings #Research #suggests #planet
Marcia Dunn , 2024-12-16 16:00:00
