Saturn is unique.
Unlike the other 8 planets in our solar system (YES PLUTO counts to me!), Saturn has one
thing going for it the others are lacking.
Rings!
Beautiful, multicoloured rings, make the 6th planet from the sun a cosmic marvel, but how
and why are they there?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I am your host Rebecca Felgate
and today I am asking: why does Saturn have rings?
Before we take off into this video, I just want to ask you guys to leave me your comments
down below.
Okay Saturn, you big old planetary babe….what have you got for us.
Well… okay, something I said at the beginning of this video isn’t actually true….
While Saturn certainly boasts the most impressive array of rings, it isn’t actually the only
planet in our hood with them.
It seems that Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus have rings.
Heh.
Ahem.
Jupiter’s rings, for example, were only discovered in 1979 by Nasa’s Voyager 1,
and are very thin and dark, unlike Saturn’s big bright ice rings, that have been the centre
of much discussion for hundreds of years.
Now, I don’t want you to get too excited straight away; the subject of Saturn’s rings
is still much debated in the astrological world; even our mates at Nasa don’t have
a definitive answer as to why they are there, but we do have a few pretty big clues.
You may have spotted a common denominator between the four planets with advertised rings
here – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are our four gas giants.
This likely tells us something about the way gravity on these huge planets influences its
surroundings.
While we know a little more about Jupiter’s very faint rings, Saturn’s bog boys have
been a source of fascination and deliberation since they were first observed by Galileo
Galilei in 1610.
Since then, we have discovered Saturn has seven groups of rings made up of thousands
of smaller rings.
Four of the group of seven stand out as being bigger than the other three, and each are
separated by gaps that scientists call divisions.
401 years after Galileo first observed Saturn’s rings, American Astrophysicist, Robin Canup
posed a new theory on the planets ring formation.
This theory is widely considered to be the most credible suggestion to date.
She says that Saturns rings are icy remains of an old smashed up moon.
She thinks this moon formed billions of years ago but got too close to the planet to uphold
a stable orbit and instead was sucked close to
Saturn, it’s gravity ripping it a part and unravelling its icy outer layers into the
prominent rings in orbit today.
She things the rock core of the moon the likely crashed into Saturn.
As for the 5 percent of Saturn’s rings that aren’t space dust – it is thought by Canup
that this is made up of meteorites that have hurtled by over the years.
Her theory is largely supported by Nasa’s Larry Esposito.
While this theory does seem to explain the inner rings of Saturn, the space probe, Cassini,
which studied the planet from 2004 to 2017, suggested that the outer ring, the E ring,
is made from ice, silicates, carbon dioxide and ammonia from cryocolcanic plumes….
So, volcanic matter, from Enceladus, Saturn’s 6th largest moon.
This could explain why Saturn’s rings are observed to be different colours; they’re
made up from different icy matter.
While Cassini plunged into Saturn in 2017, it did managed to skirt the inner rings and
send a lot of data back to earth, which is still being deciphered.
While scientists don’t have all the answers yet, it is thought that the key to understanding
the group formation of the rings comes from studying the planets roche limit.
The roche limit is the distance in which a space object can get to a planet, without
its own mass being sucked into the plants gravity.
It seems Saturns rings fall are determined by the space matters roche limit, although
some of the planets moons do fall amid the rings, no doubt having their own gravitational
effect.
Final fun fact for you; whilst Saturn is the most ringalicious planet in our solar system
today, it is suspected that Mars will one day become a ringed planet.
Its moon, Phobos, is slowly being drawn closer to the red planet.
In tens of millions of years, like the suspected events that caused Saturn’s iconic rings,
Phobos would likely be torn apart by Mars’ gravity and form a ring of debris around our
neighbour.
So there we have it – not a definite answer but an answer using the best available information
as to why Saturn has rings.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like Earth will be getting ringy with it any time soon.
If you guys liked this video and if you want more space content then please do like this
video…also leave me a comment letting me know why you think Saturn has rings and what
your favourite planet is!
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video, but fir now, stay curious,
stay alert and never ever stop questioning.