How NASA found Saturn’s rings disappearing at ‘rapid rate’ – and the date they will vanish

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, only behind Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth and it’s most famous feature is its prominent ring system made up of ice and dust. This consists of countless separate particles with sizes ranging from tiny pea-like stones to giant boulders composed mainly of water ice, with a trace of rocky material.

Scientists generally agree these once made up moons that surrounded the planet but were shattered when they came to close by tidal forces and collided.

Gravity then kept the ring in a perfect hold, but that appears to have changed, according to a study.

Published in December 2018, the paper was led by James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

It describes a process where the ice particles from the rings are being increasingly pulled by gravity onto Saturn, falling like a dusty storm.

Dr O’Donoghue said: “We estimate that this ring rain drains an amount of water that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour.

“We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime. 

“However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today.”

The study found that one region in the south of Saturn was receiving most of the ring rain.

The experiment came after the flyby of NASA’s Cassini probe in 2017 hinted Saturn’s rings may be younger than first thought.

Data gathered by the probe showed the rings’ particles are rather small, suggesting they could be debris from a past collision and not as primordial as once thought.

It was revealed earlier this week how NASA was “taken by surprise” after making a huge find on the planet during their Voyager mission.

Brian Cox revealed during his new BBC series how the spacecraft made a surprise find. 

He said last month: “For the very first time we were able to study Saturn’s vast atmosphere in detail. 

“Voyager showed, beyond doubt, that Saturn’s upper atmosphere was made almost entirely of helium and hydrogen. 

“The very same gases so abundant in the early Solar System. 

But this once chaotic gas was now organised into intricate weather systems.” 

Dr Cox went on to explain how Voyager discovered hexagonal cloud systems. 

He added: “And one find, above all others, took the Voyager team by surprise. 

“A huge hexagonal structure in the clouds, so big it could fit our entire planet within it nearly four times. 

“The atmosphere of Saturn was revealing itself to be stranger and more dynamic than we could ever have imagined.” 

These systems are around 9,000 miles long and 18,000 miles wide and are made up of atmospheric gases moving at 200mph. 

It rotates almost 11 hours and does not shift like other clouds in the atmosphere. 

source: express.co.uk