{"id":24181,"date":"2023-10-01T17:28:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T09:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-research-provides-explanation-for-the-origin-of-saturns-rings-and-icy-moons\/"},"modified":"2023-10-01T17:28:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T09:28:05","slug":"new-research-provides-explanation-for-the-origin-of-saturns-rings-and-icy-moons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-research-provides-explanation-for-the-origin-of-saturns-rings-and-icy-moons\/","title":{"rendered":"New research provides explanation for the origin of Saturn\u2019s rings and icy moons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recent research conducted by NASA and its partners using supercomputer simulations is shedding light on the origins of Saturn\u2019s iconic rings and mysterious icy moons. Scientists believe the rings began forming from a massive impact between two icy moons, all the way back when dinosaurs were still roaming around the surface of Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The massive amounts of debris from the collision were then caught by Saturn\u2019s gravitational pull and then began wrapping around the planet to produce the rings we all know and love today. What\u2019s more, debris that didn\u2019t get caught in the rings likely went on to form some of Saturn\u2019s icy moons.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s so much we still don\u2019t know about the Saturn system, including its moons that host environments that might be suitable for life. So, it\u2019s exciting to use big simulations like these to explore in detail how they could have evolved,\u201d said research scientist Jacob Kegerreis of NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Exploring the Origins of Saturn's Rings and Moons\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ey5X-h4htHQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid0\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From 1997 to 2017, NASA\u2019s Cassini mission orbited Saturn and investigated its rings, icy moons, atmospheric properties, and more. One discovery Cassini made while at Saturn is that Sarurn\u2019s rings are younger than originally expected (astronomically speaking). With this knowledge, scientists were able to better model Saturn\u2019s rings and moons in the simulation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Planetary Science Thread<\/li>\n<li>Space Science Section<\/li>\n<li>NSF Store<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To create the simulation, the team of scientists, led by Luis Teodoro, used the Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) supercomputing facility at Durham University in the United Kingdom. The scientists modeled the collision and the formation of the rings in nearly 200 different ways, as well as the different collisions between other moons and the debris. The resolution of the simulations was more than 100 times higher than previous studies into the formation of Saturn\u2019s rings. Furthermore, the scientists used open-source simulation code, SWIFT.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket building kits<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>SpaceX launch tickets<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>Spaceflight news subscription<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>Saturn\u2019s current rings are situated close to the planet within Saturn\u2019s Roche limit, which is the distance from a planetary body within which a second planetary body will disintegrate due to the tidal forces from the first planetary body exceeding the gravitational forces of the second planetary body. When simulating the collision and the formation of the rings, Teodoro et al. discovered that a significant amount of the collision scenarios scattered and distributed the right amount of debris around Saturn and within the Roche limit, which then led to the formation of the rings.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly the entirety of Saturn\u2019s rings is made of large chunks of ice, with there being very little rock and other material within the rings. Alternative explanations have been unable to explain why there\u2019d be no rock in the rings, but the type of collision simulated using DiRAC places very little rock in the rings and could provide scientists with an explanation for the lack of rock.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96008\" class=\"wp-image-96008 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA22418_-_Gravitys_Rainbow_-_Saturns_B_Ring_in_color.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1016\" height=\"1013\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA22418_-_Gravitys_Rainbow_-_Saturns_B_Ring_in_color.jpg 1016w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA22418_-_Gravitys_Rainbow_-_Saturns_B_Ring_in_color-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA22418_-_Gravitys_Rainbow_-_Saturns_B_Ring_in_color-351x350.jpg 351w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PIA22418_-_Gravitys_Rainbow_-_Saturns_B_Ring_in_color-768x766.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1016px) 100vw, 1016px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96008\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natural color image of Saturn\u2019s outer C Ring and B Ring. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis scenario naturally leads to ice-rich rings. When the icy progenitor moons smash into one another, the rock in the cores of the colliding bodies is dispersed less widely than the overlying ice,\u201d said co-author Vincent Eke of the Department of Physics\/Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University.<\/p>\n<p>A cascade of collisions could\u2019ve also occurred from the debris, with icy and rocky debris colliding with other moons around Saturn. This could have forced precursor moons out of the rings, which would have then allowed for the formation of the moons we see today.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, scientists believe Saturn\u2019s rings formed from the collision of two of Saturn\u2019s former moons. But how did the moons collide in the first place?<\/p>\n<p>Scientists believe that the extremely small effects of the Sun\u2019s gravity on the moons could have added up to slightly destabilize their orbits around Saturn, leading to a collision. When moons are in the right orbital configuration around their planets, the extra gravitational pull exerted on the planet and its moons by the Sun can have a snowballing effect. This effect is called a resonance, and it can lead to the elongation and tilting of the moons\u2019 orbits. In the case of Saturn\u2019s two former moons, a resonance led to their orbits being changed to where their paths crossed, which led to the collision that formed Saturn\u2019s rings and moons.<\/p>\n<p>One of Saturn\u2019s present-day moons, named Rhea, orbits just beyond the point at which a moon could encounter this resonance. Given that Saturn\u2019s moons, like Earth\u2019s moon, slightly move farther and farther from Saturn in every orbit they complete, Rhea had to have crossed the resonance recently. However, the moon\u2019s orbit is still extremely flat and circular, which suggests that Rhea wasn\u2019t subjected to the effects of the resonance and had to have formed more recently, astronomically speaking.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96009\" class=\"wp-image-96009 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Rhea_in_front_of_Saturn.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1017\" height=\"1018\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Rhea_in_front_of_Saturn.jpg 1017w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Rhea_in_front_of_Saturn-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Rhea_in_front_of_Saturn-768x769.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1017px) 100vw, 1017px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96009\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rhea in front of Saturn and its rings. (Credit: NASA\/JPL\/SSI)<\/p>\n<p>As aforementioned, scientists believe that Saturn\u2019s rings formed more recently, and Teodoro et al.\u2019s modeling agrees with this and is giving scientists insights into how ring systems and the moons around them form. However, there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered. For example, if some of Saturn\u2019s current icy moons formed alongside the rings and are also young, what would that mean for icy moons like Enceladus that could potentially host life within their sub-surface oceans? As scientists continue to research Saturn and model the formation of its rings and moons, some of these questions could be answered \u2014 which would tell us more about Saturn and our solar system as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Teodoro et al.\u2019s research, titled \u201cA Recent Impact Origin of Saturn\u2019s Rings and Mid-sized Moons,\u201d was published in <em>The Astrophysical Journal<\/em> on Sept. 26.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Lead image: Saturn, as imaged by Cassini in 2016. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent research conducted by NASA and its partners using supercomputer simulations is shedding light on the origins of Saturn\u2019s iconic rings and mysterious icy moons. Scientists believe the rings began forming from a massive impact between two icy moons, all the way back when dinosaurs were still roaming around the surface of Earth. The massive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2394,1559,7891,190,2993,1562,8389],"class_list":["post-24181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini","tag-enceladus","tag-icy-moons","tag-nasa","tag-rings","tag-saturn","tag-saturns-rings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}