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Saturn With No Rings? It Could Happen, and Sooner Than Astronomers Expected

The headshot image of Mark V. Vorobets

Mark V. Vorobets

Jan 31, 2019
RELEASE

Jeff Cuzzi (SST)  A short article resulting from the interview at the recent AGU meeting has just appeared in the New York Times, titled, “Saturn With No Rings? It Could Happen, and Sooner Than Astronomers Expected” which emphasizes a different aspect of the “young rings” story – not only were they not formed more than a few hundred Myr ago, but they seem to be eroding into the planet at a rate that would deplete most of their mass in about the same time from now – only a few hundred Myr into the  future:

This video explores how Saturn is losing its rings at a rapid rate in geologic timescales and what that reveals about the planet’s history. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/David Ladd