Everything you need to know about the Saturn's rings - VastlyCurious

    Saturn is one of the magnificent planets in our Solar system because it is ornamented with a radiant arrangement of rings around them. It is also similar to the Gas giant, Jupiter as it is made of hydrogen and helium. Along with its decoration of icy rings, it also plays host to more than 60 moons. What makes Saturn magnificent is the presence of its rings, they are made of pieces of asteroids and the moon's fragments. These particles are chuck of ice and metal rocks, so you wouldn't want to try to walk on the rings of Saturn. So how were the rings discovered? Do the rings vanish one day?

The Discovery of Saturn's rings 

    The discovery of the Rings of Saturn after the invention of the telescope and Galileo was the first person to spot Saturn's rings in 1610. Even though other planets like Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter had rings, the rings of Saturn were special because it was huge and shining. It's been 400 years since the spotting of Saturn's rings, but we have made only small progress in finding the mysteries of the rings. The exact number of rings around Saturn could not be found because of the variation in the distance between the rings. But now with our latest technology, we have found that Saturn has 7 rings and they were supposedly in alphabetical order. But the closer we get the rings, we find more the number of rings. So now the A ring which was discovered first is not actually the closest to Saturn. 

The Discovery of Saturn's rings

    The rings of Saturn were found to be thousands of miles wide and they were about 30 to 300 feet thick. These sets of rings are moderately close to each other with the largest distance between two rings A and B is 4700 kilometres (2920 miles) which is known as the Cassini Division. Because of the minor gap between the rings, many rings were discovered recently. So the right order of the seven rings, starting from the outer ring D are the C ring, B ring, Cassini division, A ring, F ring, G ring and the E ring. The fascinating discovery was made that the rings were actually orbiting the planet at diverse speeds.

How was Saturn's ring formed?

    Saturn is the second-largest planet in our solar system next to Jupiter, as the planet is huge, its gravitational pull is also enormous. This enormous gravity made asteroids and moon break, so the fragments formed because of the collision between the asteroids and moons formed the rings around the planet. Saturn's gravity is what is holding the rings together. We still don't know the proper evidence of how the rings of Saturn are formed as the rings might be present since the big bang. The Rings are explored by NASA's probes, Pioneer and Voyager. With the recent Cassini mission, a probe will spend more than a decade orbiting Saturn and its rings. By 2026, NASA is also planning to launch a probe to Saturn's moon Titan and the probe Dragonfly will be launched with the help of SpaceX reusable rockets. More mysteries about the rings could be solved during this mission. 

The Cassini Mission to explore Saturn

 

When did the rings on Saturn form?

    The formation of rings on Saturn was due to the high gravity of the planet, but that doesn't answer the question of when did the rings form. Different studies have made various predictions on the age of the rings of Saturn. Some Astronomers have predicted that the rings might be just 10 million years old and we are lucky to have them during our human lifetime. But other studies had established that they might be old as the planet itself and Saturn's rings might be existing ever since the big bang.

Saturn's rings

 

    The age of the rings is calculated based on the colour of the rings. So as the rings are appearing to be shining brightly, the astronomers think that they might not be so much old because if it was older, the rings might have to be polluted and be appear not to be as reflective as it appears now. So the rings are young, right? We are still not sure because if the rings are younger than 10 million years, the formation of such large rings might need a collision of a large planet or a larger moon and both of which seem unlikely. So yes! We still don't know the age of the rings of Saturn and whether they were formed right after the big bang or just recently. But the hope is not lost, the NASA's mission to explore Saturn might us untangle the mystery of the rings.

Why are Saturn's rings disappearing?

    The observations made by the Voyager 1 and 2 found out that Saturn has already started losing its rings. Even though its moon, Titan is going out of orbit, its rings are very much attracted to the planet because of its gravity and its close range. Astronomers have predicted that the rings might vanish after 100 million years, which is a small time frame compared to the age of the planet. This might happen due to the high gravity of the planet. Firstly the inner rings will disintegrate and the particles will rain down into the planet, followed by the outer rings of the planet. After all the rings are made up of ice, we expect them to hold on not long. 

The Disappearing rings of Saturn

    The Idea of 'Ring Rain' is entirely true and it is confirmed by the Voyager probe, the icy rings around the planets tend to fall into the planet. The Cassini mission on Saturn also confirmed this phenomenon of Ring rain. This rain could fill up an entire Olympic Swimming pool which is 2.5 mega-litres (660,430 gallons) in just half an hour. So the rings are definitely going to disintegrate in the future. The total disappearance of the rings is expected to be around 100 to 300 million years.

    

Conclusion

    The Spectacular view of Saturn might not last forever and we don't even understand how Saturn got its ring while the other planets in our solar system didn't. Further research made on the planet might just give us the clue about the formation of the rings. So investing in Space exploration is going to be crucial in finding out the truth about the rings.