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Saturn is known for its rings, but its orbit structure may disappear "soon": 100 million years may seem like a lot to a human life, but it's little in cosmic terms. A study published in November in the scientific journal Icarus and now published by NASA reveals that the material constituting the rings "rains" on the planet – at a rate that scientists describe as "worst case scenario". Just because of this rain, the rings could disappear in 300 million years. But when the observations made by the Cbadini probe are added to the equation, the lifespan of the rings goes up to 100 million years.
"We are lucky to see this system of rings of Saturn, which seems to be in the middle of its existence.However, if the rings are temporary, we may have also missed the This is an opportunity to see the giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which continue to have small rings, "said astrophysicist James O Donoghue of the Flight Center. Goddard Space, in the US state of Maryland.
Up to now, it is not known if Saturn has already formed rings (created from debris left in the formation of the planet) or if won later. These more recent studies suggest that the second hypothesis is most likely and that the rings did not exist more than 100 million years ago, which would infer from the current rate of disappearance of the rings. . For comparison, it is estimated that Saturn is about four billion years old. If this is the case (and if it is the only time they were formed), the rings only existed for 2.5% of life on the planet.
The rings are kept in orbit by balancing the gravity of the planet. pulls them one towards the other) and their orbital speed, which "propels" them into space. The problem is that sometimes the particles that make up the rings are charged by the sun, which makes them susceptible to the action of Saturn's magnetic field, making them "sharp" on the planet. Scientists report that it only rains in half an hour. These observations were made by O & # 39; Donoghue and other scientists with one of two giant telescopes of the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The new survey, which reconciles the observations of this "rain" with the data collected during the missions . 1 and 2 reveal that the rings disappear at an "extremely fast pace".
The rings of Saturn are mainly made up of ice. Their size varies from the size of microscopic particles to large pebbles similar to those of the Empire State Building, the Washington Post
The first person to see these rings is the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564- 1642), in 1610 – although he uses a telescope so rudimentary that he does not immediately perceive what are the rings; they looked like giant ears. It was only in 1659 that the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens realized that the structure around the planet was made of rings so bright that we can now see them at home with a telescope.
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