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Scientists discover the origins of Saturn’s rings and moons
- Scientists have discovered an explanation for how Saturn's rings and moons were formed, using advanced supercomputer simulations to understand the events that might have shaped the planet's rings and moons. This research offers a new insight into the potential for life within this planetary system.
- Saturn's rings were formed a few hundred million years ago following the impact of two icy moons, which scattered icy debris into rings, and possibly contributed to the creation of some of Saturn's other moons. Such collisions could scatter icy debris into Saturn's Roche limit, which allowed rings to take shape instead of larger bodies.
- New findings suggest that when icy moons collide, their rocky cores remain intact or scatter less widely than the surrounding ice, which naturally leads to ice-rich rings like Saturn's. Researchers used the SWIFT open-source simulation code on Durham University's Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) supercomputing facility, to simulate nearly 200 different impacts between precursor moons.
- The studies also revealed that such a collision likely caused a cascade of collisions among other moons in the system that created eroded existing moons, and produced new ones from the resulting debris. The potential trigger for the original collision lies in the gravitational interplay between the sun and Saturn's moons.
- Past hypotheses suggested the rings formed billions of years ago as remnants of a destroyed moon or a tidally disrupted comet, but they were statistically unlikely in the current solar system. Newer theories propose that Saturn once had additional moons, one of which destabilised and collided with the planet, ejecting ice and rock into orbit, occurring about 100 million years ago.
- While these scenarios explain many features of Saturn's rings and moons, the questions remain, could the icy moons like Enceladus, which harbors a subsurface ocean have formed recently enough to retain conditions favourable for life? Ongoing research aims to answer these questions.
- The research aims to offer a new framework for understanding Saturn's moons and their migrations, which appear to act faster than previously thought due to resonances with Saturn's internal gravity waves.
- Saturn's rings are primarily icy, with more than 95% of their mass composed of water ice and are losing mass at a significant rate, which is making them ephemeral in cosmic terms, according to studies. They are also much younger than previously thought, estimated to be less than a few hundred million years old, and have the potential to provide researchers with more information on the planetary system.
- The study not only gives an insight into the inner workings of one of our solar system's celestial marvels, but it could also provide a better understanding of planetary systems in other parts of our galaxy
- Saturn's rings stand as a testament to the dynamic processes shaping our solar system, and their fleeting nature reminds us that even seemingly permanent celestial features are subject to change.
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