Saturn's rings may have formed when dinosaurs roamed Earth: Halo could be billions of years younger than thought
- Researchers looked through data gathered by Cassini probe 10 years ago
- The data revealed the composition of the non-icy parts of Saturn's C ring
- Saturn's rings are mainly ice, but other materials give a better idea of age
- New analysis suggests the C ring is between 15 and 100 million years old
Its icy rings make Saturn one of the most memorable-looking planets in the solar system.
But despite studying them intensely, researchers are still unsure exactly when the iconic rings formed.
Now a new study suggests the rings were created between 15 to 100 million years ago.
This suggest they may be a chance they formed when dinosaurs roamed the planet between 230 and 65 million years ago, making them billions of years younger than we previously thought.
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They make Saturn one of the most memorable-looking planets in the solar system, and scientists have been fascinated by the planet's icy rings for years. Now a new study suggests the iconic rings could be billions of years younger than we previously thought
None of the other existing origin scenarios predict the rings are any younger than 3.8 billion years old.
Researchers at Cornell University studied an almost forgotten set of data, collected 10 years ago by Nasa's Cassini mission.
The rings are predominantly composed of water ice particles, up to several feet in size, but these particles are continually 'polluted' by bombarding micrometeoroids.
'Water ice comprises the bulk of Saturn's rings, yet it is the small fraction of non-icy material that is arguably more valuable in revealing clues about the system's origin and age,' the researchers wrote in a new study, published in the journal Icarus.
In the study, Cornell's Zhimeng Zhang and co-authors studied a set of data collected early in Cassini's mission.
The instruments used measured the entire ring composition, rather just the surfaces' icy layers.
Saturn's C ring is the most 'polluted' due to its relative low mass, making it easier to acquire a higher proportion of non-icy material.
In the study, Cornell's Zhimeng Zhang and co-authors studied a set of data collected early in Cassini's mission. Artist's impression of Cassini pictured
'This makes the C ring ideal for investigating ring contamination and piecing together age and history,' Zhang told SciNews.
After sifting through reams of data, the authors showed most regions in the C ring contained between 1 and 2 per cent rocky silicates.
Combining this with estimates of the micrometeoroid flux places the C ring somewhere between 15 and 100 million years old, billions of years younger than expected.
'None of the current origin scenarios predict the rings are likely younger than 3.8 billion years old,' said Zhang.
'This will force a rethinking of ring origin models.'
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