The inner rings of Saturn are steadily vanishing as they are getting sucked into the planet's atmosphere. Scientists are trying to figure out why this is happening and when such rings may vanish completely.
Saturn's Inner Rings
Yahoo! News reports that the rings of Saturn are thought to be roughly 100 million years old. This means that they were not yet present when dinosaurs still filled the Earth.
According to Space, astronomers have known about the vanishing of Saturn's icy inner rings since the 1980s. They have also known that this occurs as the rings get sucked into the planet's upper atmosphere.
Futurism notes that the collapse of these icy rings comes as an icy rain that follows strong gravity. In fact, the daily downpour is equivalent to the amount of water that can fill an Olympic-sized pool.
While this is something that astronomers are familiar with, the shrinking rate of the ring system still remains a mystery. Knowing this is vital to inferring when the rings may totally vanish.
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Will Saturn's Rings Vanish Completely?
Astronomers are trying to probe into this mystery using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, as reported by Yahoo! News.
James O'Donoghue, a JAXA researcher looking into monitoring the demise of the ring system, explains that they are trying to know the rate of the rings' erosion. O'Donoghue notes that current research shows that the rings may have been present for a few hundred million years.
Space reports more specifically that, with the rate of 800 to 6,000 pounds being rained over the planet each second, these rings could vanish entirely in roughly 300 million years.
O'Donoghue adds that though "hundred million years" may sound long, it is quite a quick death when viewed in light of the universe's history. It would be quite lucky if things could be turned around while the rings are still there.
He adds that they currently have a single, huge estimate. They are hoping to conduct further observations that may narrow down this wide range.
In order to get a more accurate look into this mystery, O'Donoghue and colleagues monitor the fluctuating trend over the long term. Both the JWST and the Keck Observatory will be included in these long-term efforts to look at Saturn. More specifically, both observatories will gauge emissions from a specific molecule of hydrogen in the planet's upper atmosphere.
The astronomers also suspect that the altering radiation of the Sun during the planet's orbit may affect the quantity of icy material pouring over Saturn's atmosphere. O'Donoghue explains the possibility that when the rings end up "edge-on with the sun," the rain may end up slowing down.
The astronomers are expecting to garner interesting and intriguing data through this monitoring campaign.
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