
12-18-2018, 07:03 PM
|
 |
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: ABQ, New Mexico
Posts: 36,633
Thanks: 3,506
Thanked 136,542 Times in 22,784 Posts
|
|
Of all the planets in our Solar System, you’d have to agree that Saturn is the most immediately recognizable. With its iconic rings, you can pick Saturn out in an instant, but if NASA scientists are right, we might actually be watching the planet’s most eye-catching feature disappearing right in front of us.
In a new video, NASA Goddard explains that while we’ve always seen Saturn with its bold rings, the rings themselves are actually fairly young. Estimated to be less than 100 million years old, they’re a “new” feature of the planet, and they won’t be sticking around for long.
The rings are made up largely of frozen water, and they’re actively dumping incredible amounts of ice onto the planet constantly. A recent paper suggests that a whopping 22,000 pounds of material falls from the rings every single second, and over time that rain will bleed the rings completely dry.
|