According to NASA, Saturn, the big ringed planet is losing its rings at a quote ‘worst
case scenario rate’ . This is because saturns rings are being pulled into the planet by
gravity, and they are raining down as dusty ice particles under the influence of saturns
magnetic field.
Saturn without rings?
Is anyone else super upset about this?
What is good this is inform overload I’m charlotte dobre and on this channel we talk
about whats trending on the internet.
Basically we find the coolest, most interesting news stories on the web and we tell you about
them so you can sound super cool and informed to your friends.
If that sounds like something you’re into, like sub and turn on those notifications,
and follow the IO team on social media, our links are posted down below in the description.
Its been a while since we talked about space on this channel, I missed it.
Everybody likes space, right?
Cool. glad we can agree on something.
Let me know what your favourite planet is down there in those comments but while you
ponder that, I’m going to fill you in on whats happening to our beloved Saturn.
Saturn is a planet that’s 4 billion years old.
Saturn is the 6th planet from the sun, the second largest in our solar system, and a
gas giant.
Its year is 29.4 earth years.
But its best known for its iconic rings, that dress the planet and make it look like its
sporting a hoola hoop.
So a Saturn without rings?
That’s honestly really difficult to imagine but according to nasa scientists, the process
has already begun.
Saturns rings look like rings to us, but up close they made up of billions of chunks of
water ice ranging in size form microscopic dust grains to boulders that are several meters
across.
These chunks hang in the balance of being pulled into Saturn by gravity, and being flung
black outward into space by their orbital velocity.
They stretch 175 thousand miles across.
Scientists don’t know if saturns rings formed later, or if they formed with the formation
of the planet.
If they were formed later, its possible that the rings are actually fragments that used
to be icy moons that were broken apart by gravitational forces from a passing asteroid
or comet.
But according to new research, saturns rings are not that old.
They have only been orbiting the planet for around 100 million years which is right around
the time when dinosaurs roamed the planet.
And right now, the rings of Saturn are raining down on the planet at an alarming rate.
The maxium rate, as estimated from voyager 1 and 2 observations that were made decades
ago.
According to James O-Donoghue of nasas goddard space flight center, we estimate that this
ring rain drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic sized swimming
pool from saturns rings in half an hour.
That’s 22 thousand pounds per second that’s falling on the equator.
Once the particles are in the upper atmosphere, they vaporize and the water reacts with saturns
ionosphere, and when they are energized by sunlight the ions glow in infrared light.
That’s how scientists figured out that saturns rings are raining down on saturn
It was previously thought that it would take 300 million years to shed its rings but that
number seems to be wrong.
According to new data, In less than 100 million years, saturns rings might be gone completely.
That might soun like a pretty long time from now, but when you think about how old Saturn
is, 4 billion years, its actually not that long.
This gives us new insight into the science of ringed planets.
Saturn losing its rings means that rings might actually be only temporary, whch means that
Jupiter, Uranus and neptume might have had huge rings in the past.
They only have thin ringlets today.
But I’m still bummed out about Saturn losing its rings.
Without them, it’s just going to look boring and beige.
Anyways guys that is all I have for you on this, let me know your thoughts in the comments
down below but for now I’m going to do some comment replies.
Avi cobb – there is nothing funny about io.
Eats invisible potato.
Nothing at all.
Oooh that feeling when you bout to be featured in the comments.
I wanna see the dance charlotte.
NO.
NEVER.
Bambrick Vlogs – potato queen is my dad.
GA mA – hey charlotte remember about that prophecy about the world ending back in april?
Good memories.
Yes I remember and is the world not over?
depends who you’re talking to I guess.
Niya Streeter – hey charlotte at my school we are doing a kindness project, you pick
a name from a bowl and do something nice for that person.
This project is about spreading kindness, maybe people could learn something from us.
Crocey Gamer – I love the videos!
Keep the work up.
Enjoy Christmas and the new year both you and the team.
Aww thanks very much, we hope you guys have a great holiday as well.
Just wanted to take the opportunity to let you guys know that I’m going to be away
next week because I’m seeing my family so johnny is going to be covering for me SO BE
NICE.