Get the latest tech news

Saturn's rings could be much older than scientists first thought

The idea that Saturn's rings are young seemed very strange in the context of the solar system's long evolutionary history."

Some researchers had thought the iconic features formed along with Saturn about 4.5 billion years ago from the icy rubble left in orbit around it after the birth of the solar system. Over time, micrometeoroids — rocks smaller than a grain of sand hurtling through space — would have slammed into the bright icy particles making up Saturn's rings. However, "the idea that Saturn's rings are young seemed very strange in the context of the solar system's long evolutionary history," study lead author Ryuki Hyodo, a planetary scientist at the Institute of Science Tokyo, told Space.com.

Get the Android app