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With its vast ring system, Saturn is one of the most beautiful planets in the solar system. Unfortunately, its beauty can be ephemeral, according to new research. According to a study, the rings of Saturn dissolve faster than predicted by scientists, and they could disappear by 100 to 300 million years ago – a wink at the time cosmological.
• The mystery of the expansion of the Universe increasingly confused
• Astronomers are discovering what could be one of the oldest stars in the universe [19659002] The rings of Saturn are composed mainly of ice, but new research has been published in the newspaper Icarus ] shows that they are attacked by gravity and the magnetic field of the planet, triggering a phenomenon called "ring rain". Scientists have documented the first torrential rains in 2013, but a new study, led by James O 's Donoghue of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, shows that the effect is occurring much faster than expected, just as Scientists do not really know if Saturn was born with her magnificent halo or if she acquired her ring system later.
If this is the first case, the rings were formed about 4.4 billion years ago, but if it was the second case, they formed only about 100 million of years, probably as a result of collisions of moons in orbit around Saturn, according to a study published in 2016.
If the recent training scenario is true, it means that Saturn had no problem. ring when giant dinosaurs Soperopoda roamed the Earth during the Jurbadic. But the dinosaurs did not have a telescope, so it did not matter. Fortunately, humans have telescopes at a time when Saturn has its glorious rings. Let's say we are lucky.
A version of the artist of the appearance of Saturn in the hundred million years to come. The deepest rings disappear when they rain on the planet, followed very slowly by the outer rings. GIF: NASA / Cbadini / James O. Donoghue
"We are lucky to be here to see Saturn's ringtone system, which seems to be in the middle of his life," he said. O & # 39; Donoghue in a statement. "However, if the rings are temporary, we may have missed the opportunity to see the giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which nowadays only have thin rings."
Be that as it may, when the Voyager probes visited Saturn decades ago, they detected the electrically charged upper atmosphere of the gaseous giant, or ionosphere, with variations of density in their rings and three dark and narrow bands surrounding the northern latitudes of the planet.
In 1986, NASA scientists called these narrow, dark bands the shape of the substantial magnetic field of Saturn. These seemingly unrelated observations led to the theory that particles of electrically charged Saturn rings flow along magnetic field lines – a process that led to the spilling of water from their rings into their ionosphere, creating the narrow bands visible on the images. of Traveling.
The rings of Saturn seem soothed from the Earth, but pieces of ice water ranging from microscopic dust to giant rocks are caught in a great struggle with the rope. The rings are a delicate balancing act, wedged between Saturn's gravitational force and gravitational pull and the orbital tugs pulling them outward. This equilibrium is disturbed when the ice particles are charged by the Sun's ultraviolet light, causing them to descend to the planet along their magnetic field lines, gravity providing an additional impulse.
whose water interacts with the ionosphere of the planet, can be detected from the Earth. In his new study, O & # 39; Donoghue used the Keck telescope from Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to detect and measure these liquid-ionospheric chemical interactions. His team compared light to the north and south rings of the planet to determine how much rain was falling from the rings.
Incredibly, researchers estimate that between 432 and 2,870 kilograms of water are leaking from Saturn's rings. every second At this rate, the rings should disappear in about 292 million years.
O & # 39; Donoghue says that the amount of rain in the rings can fill an Olympic pool in just half an hour. Other evidence collected by the Cbadini probe suggests however an even earlier validity date. Cbadini measured the fall of the rings on Saturn's equator at a pace suggesting that "the rings are less than 100 million years old," said O Donoghue in the release, adding: "C & D Is relatively short compared to Saturn's age of more than four billion years. "
I must say that this study makes me very angry. It is sad to think of Saturn without its rings, even if it will be in millions of years. When this happens (and if it happens), our solar system will be considerably less spectacular than it is today. But you will know … Another planet may already have its own ring system.
[Icarus]
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