Researchers do not know with certainty whether or not the planet Saturn is created with its iconic rings, or whether they were added later.
New measurements suggest the latter. The rings are disappearing at a speed that is three times faster than we have believed possible. It writes the NASA according to the Science.dk, where you can also see an animation of the phenomenon.
We have before known that this drainage would make an end to the ring system in the course of 300 million years, but new measurements from spacecraft Cassini now show that the rings have less than 100 million years back.
the Measurements indicate at the same time, the rings are probably not older than 100 million years.
100 million years sounds immediately much, but it must be taken into account in the calculation, that Saturn itself is over 4 billion years old.
If the planets rings can arise and disappear in the course of such a short time, it opens completely new possibilities in our own solar system.
– It is fortunate for us that we are here to experience Saturn’s ring system, which seems to be midway in its life. However, if the rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed to see the giant ringsystemer on Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, says NASA researcher James O’donoghue.
Saturn’s rings consist mainly of ice, there may be small as a speck of dust or large lumps of several feet in diameter
the Particles can be electrically charged by ultraviolet light from the Sun or of the plasmaskyer from mikrometeoritter that bombards the rings.
When that happens, Saturn’s magnetic field lead ispartiklerne into the planet’s atmosphere, where they dissolve and fall down as a drizzle because of Saturn’s gravity.
the liquid level falling from Saturn’s rings, according to NASA’s estimates large enough to that it could fill an olympic swimming pool every half hour.
See the card: Here are drunk the most in Denmark
Why am I suddenly sad, when I touch my nipple?
the Year’s most beautiful videnskabsbilleder: Dinofossil, slangefoster and blue stars
