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How old are Saturn's rings? Photo
clipped by: dorine

clipped from antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

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How old are Saturn's rings? No one is quite sure. One possibility is that the rings formed relatively recently in our Solar System's history, perhaps only about 100 million years ago when a moon-sized object broke up near Saturn.

New evidence, however, raises the possibility that some of Saturn's rings may be billions of years old and so almost as old as Saturn itself.

Seen here, Saturn's rings were imaged in their true colors by the robotic Cassini in late October. Icy bright Tethys, a moon of Saturn likely brightened by a sandblasting rain of ice from sister moon Enceladus, is visible in front of the darker rings.

Tags: saturn, rings, moon, astronomy, space

clipper's remarks: Is that the moon Mimas in the shot?

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