Mini-Moons Form And Disappear In Saturn's Rings All The Time
- 10 years ago
Experts say that one of the rings of Saturn might be creating and destroying miniature moons over the course of mere weeks or months.
Experts say that one of the rings of Saturn might be creating and destroying miniature moons over the course of mere weeks or months.
While most of the other rings around the gas giant planet are made up of large pieces of ice, the F ring, which is one of the outer rings, is made of small ice particles that are about the size of dust.
The ice dust sticks together to temporarily form small moons, called moonlets that are about the size of mountains.
Researchers studying the activity in Saturn’s rings theorize that moonlets can form quickly in a matter of weeks or months, and they can also be broken apart just as fast.
Saturn’s F ring is difficult to observe from telescopes on Earth, but the moonlets first appeared in images taken by NASA’s missions during the 1980s.
The latest evidence comes from images captured by NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which shows that there are actually fewer moonlets than what the observations showed in 1980s.
Scientists aren’t sure about why there are less moonlets, but one theory says that Saturn’s moon Prometheus causes a cyclical disturbance in the F ring, and the images were taken at different phases of the cycle.
Experts say that one of the rings of Saturn might be creating and destroying miniature moons over the course of mere weeks or months.
While most of the other rings around the gas giant planet are made up of large pieces of ice, the F ring, which is one of the outer rings, is made of small ice particles that are about the size of dust.
The ice dust sticks together to temporarily form small moons, called moonlets that are about the size of mountains.
Researchers studying the activity in Saturn’s rings theorize that moonlets can form quickly in a matter of weeks or months, and they can also be broken apart just as fast.
Saturn’s F ring is difficult to observe from telescopes on Earth, but the moonlets first appeared in images taken by NASA’s missions during the 1980s.
The latest evidence comes from images captured by NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which shows that there are actually fewer moonlets than what the observations showed in 1980s.
Scientists aren’t sure about why there are less moonlets, but one theory says that Saturn’s moon Prometheus causes a cyclical disturbance in the F ring, and the images were taken at different phases of the cycle.