Saturn’s gravity and magnetic field drag ice particles into its atmosphere that make up the ring system, which in less than 100 million years will lead to the complete exhaustion and disappearance of the gas giant’s distinctive features.
According to our estimates, the amount of water falling in 30min onto Saturn in the form of rain from its rings is enough to fill the Olympic pool. This is enough to completely destroy rings for 300 million years. But add to this the material falling into the equatorial regions of the planet, as evidenced by the Cassini data, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live.
-James O’Donoghue, the lead author of the study from the Center for Space Flight. Goddard NASA
The first hints of the existence of a ring rain were found in seemingly unrelated phenomena: peculiar variations of Saturn’s electrically charged upper atmosphere, uneven density in rings and a trio of narrow dark bands surrounding the planet in northern midlatitudes that were first seen in foggy images stratosphere, made by NASA’s Voyager-2 probe in 1981.
In 1986, scientists suggested that the narrow dark stripes are associated with the form of the giant’s magnetic field and that electrically charged ice particles from the rings flow down its invisible lines, supplying water to the upper layers of the atmosphere of Saturn. The influx of water, which dominates at certain latitudes, flushes the stratospheric haze, making it dark in reflected light and creating narrow stripes.
Mostly rings of Saturn are made up of water ice bricks, ranging in size from microscopic particles to boulders several meters wide. The smallest grains can acquire an electric charge under the action of solar radiation or plasma clouds emanating from the micrometeoroid bombardment of rings. As soon as the particles recharge, the magnetic field of Saturn begins to affect them, attracting them, as a result, the balance of forces acting on the particles changes dramatically, and the planet’s gravity sucks them into the upper atmosphere along the magnetic field lines.
Once there, the particles of the ice ring melt, and the water from them reacts with the Saturn’s ionosphere. One of the results of such chemistry is the increase in the life expectancy of electrically charged H3 + ions, consisting of three protons and two electrons, which glow in the infrared range under the action of sunlight. This phenomenon was recorded by a team of researchers using instruments on the telescope of the Keck Observatory. In particular, their observations revealed luminous bands in the northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn, where the magnetic field lines that cross the plane of the rings enter the planet.
In addition, the researchers found another luminous band at a higher latitude in the southern hemisphere, in a place where the magnetic field lines intersect the orbit of Enceladus, a geologically active satellite that spews water geysers into space. This indicates that some of the particles emitted by the moon by the gas giant also fall on Saturn.
We were lucky to see the ring system of Saturn, which probably formed 100 million years ago and is now in the middle of its life journey. On the other hand, if the rings are temporary, then we have missed the opportunity to admire the giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, from which almost nothing is left today.
-James O’Donoghue
In the future, the team plans to find out how the power of the ring rain changes depending on the season on Saturn, as during its movement in orbit the rings are subjected to varying degrees of exposure from the Sun. And, since ultraviolet radiation charges the ice grains and causes them to interact with the magnetic field of the planet, the varying amount of sunlight should affect the rate of disappearance of the rings.
Saturn will swallow its rings in 100 million years
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