Compared to the planet, Saturn's rings are a relatively new phenomenon.
"Think about the rings like the carpet in your house," University of Boulder physicist Sascha Kempf."If you have a clean carpet laid out, you just have to wait. Dust will settle on your carpet. The same is true for the rings."
Using measurements of the dust build-up on the rings of Saturn, the researchers estimated that the structures had been accumulating less than a gram per square foot of this material each year. This revealed to them that compared to the planet, Saturn's rings are a relatively new phenomenon andin a period that is equivalent to a blink of an eye — in cosmic terms, at least. The rings are being pulled back into the planet due to the gas giant's gravity, and astronomers aren't exactly sure how much longer they have.This image from Cassini, in which Saturn is backlit by the sun, shows the location of the planet's rings, including the E ring.
. This interest intensified in the 1800s with the revelation that the rings are not actually solid, but are composed of smaller individual particles.
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