Origin of Saturn’s Rings. PHOTO/DAILY
TEXAS – Saturn being one of the planets in our Solar System that has very beautiful rings. And some of us may have wondered where the planet’s rings come from.
Recent research led by Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado has revealed its origins. The following is the explanation, according to Live Science, Sunday (4/2/2024).
In a theory published in the journal Nature, Robin said that Saturn’s rings actually originate from the icy remains of the previous Moon’s debris.
That said, when Saturn and its moons formed along with the rest of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, one of Saturn’s large moons formed too close to the planet to maintain a stable orbit.
The moon began to rotate inward, and as it did, Saturn’s gravity tore off its outer icy layer and threw it into orbit to create the rings we see today.
And after 10,000 years of denudation, the remaining rocky core of the moon finally hit Saturn and was destroyed. Robin himself has created a computer model that simulates the series of events.
The model he created explains that 90-95 percent of Saturn’s rings consist of. He also firmly believes that the waste rock and dust came from meteorites that peppered the rings for billions of years.
Previously, the theory of Saturn’s rings was revealed by Larry Esposito, a leading planetary astronomer who worked on NASA’s Cassini Mission to Saturn. He suggested Saturn’s rings came from a small Moon or a passing comet that was torn apart by the planet’s gravity.
However, the theory fails to explain why the rings are so icy, as moons and comets contain a lot of rock. Robin’s “shaved ice” theory is the most accepted by scientists.
However, Robin’s new theory cannot explain everything that happens around Saturn, such as the small moons that mark the edge of the rings. So it still takes a lot of research to reveal the truth.
(wbs)
2024-02-04 12:21:19
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