New observations unlock mysteries of Saturn's rings

17 Jun 2002

Astronomers, taking advantage of a rare "edge-on" view of Saturn's ring system, have used the Hubble Space Telescope to help answer two major questions about the giant planet's rings: when were they formed, and how long will they last? The observations confirmed a 30-year-old prediction that frozen water in the rings is vaporized and then broken into its constituents, creating a tenuous "atmosphere" of gas around the rings.

By analyzing the Hubble data, astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University Department of Physics and Astronomy learned that the ring system is losing up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of frozen water per second. But even at this rate, the researchers estimate that the rings probably will survive at least another billion years. The findings were reported in a recent issue of Science.