Saturn’s rings may have been formed as a result of the destruction of one of its satellites

According to a new study, Saturn’s rings may have formed 100 million years ago when its strong gravity tore one of its moons apart. According to scientists, this is related to Titan moving away from the planet, as well as the resonance of the orbital rotation of Saturn and Neptune.

Decades ago, the gas giant’s amazing rings were thought to have formed with the celestial body itself, but in the early 1980s, scientists used observations of the speed and collisions of ice particles to suggest that the rings were 100 million years old.

As part of the Cassini mission, we found more evidence for this by measuring the fraction of interplanetary dust in the aforementioned formations, which turned out to be very small, only 1%. Some researchers still suspected that some of the dust might have flowed into Saturn, making the rings look younger, but the latest research dispels those doubts.

Saturn is deviated from the orbital plane of the solar system by 26.7 degrees. In 2021, it was suggested that the reason for this could be the outward movement of Titan. The planet is also characterized by precession (change in rotation axis), which is related to the attraction of Titan by the Sun. As a result of the increased precession rate, Saturn resonated with Neptune’s orbital precession, which had an amplifying effect (like swinging a hand on a swing).

Now they are no longer in harmony with each other, but why?

According to scientists, the reason for this could be a hypothetical moon of Saturn called Crystalis, which came too close to the celestial body, disintegrated and caused the formation of rings.

Computer models showed that in the period between 100-200 million years Crystallis and Titan should have resonated, which destabilized the orbit of the first of them, and without interaction with it, Saturn’s precession slowed down.

Scientists say that this hypothesis sheds light on 4 issues about Saturn at the same time (tilt, rings, their age and Titan’s eccentric orbit). A new paper was published in the journal Science.