CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — New analysis means that Saturn’s rings could also be older than they give the impression of being — presumably as previous because the planet.
As an alternative of being a youthful 400 million years previous as generally thought, the icy, shimmering rings may very well be round 4.5 billion years previous similar to Saturn, a Japanese-led group 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 based mostly on greater than a decade of observations by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft earlier than its demise in 2017.
Photographs by Cassini confirmed no proof of any darkening of the rings by impacting micrometeoroids — house rock particles smaller than a grain of sand — prompting scientists to conclude that the rings fashioned lengthy after the planet.
By laptop modeling, the Institute of Science Tokyo’s Ryuki Hyodo and his group 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 house, holding the rings spotless and difficult the child rings principle. Their outcomes seem within the journal Nature Geoscience.
Hyodo stated it’s attainable Saturn’s rings may very well be someplace between the 2 excessive ages — across the midway mark of two.25 billion years previous. However the photo voltaic system was rather more chaotic throughout its childhood, with giant planetary-type objects migrating and interacting all over — simply the form of situation that might be conducive to producing Saturn’s rings.