Cassini ’s charge around Saturn may have ended almost two years ago , but there are still surprise in the data being analyse . Researchers have now write an analysis from the closest ever reflection of Saturn ’s brilliant rings .
The rings , name A to G in parliamentary law of uncovering , are a changeable system . They are also young compared to the satellite , form between 10 and 100 million age ago . In the journalScience , the team reports the presence of intricate structure within the gang that run from clumpy to shine to straw - similar .
Some of the patterns are shape by the shepherd moon that inhabit the tintinnabulation , but there are also other factors at play . There is grounds of streaks in the F - doughnut that suggest a group of impactors may have tally the realm at the same time . These impactors were likley not asteroids that crossed the itinerary of the satellite but material already in orbit around Saturn .
" These new details of how the moonshine are sculpting the rings in various ways provide a window into solar system formation , where you also have disks evolving under the influence of masses plant within them , " go writer and Cassini scientist Matt Tiscareno , from the SETI Institute in Mountain View , said in astatement .
We do n’t eff why the ring textile is organise in the three different patterns ; however , the clumpy , smooth , and streaked design are confined to specific belt within the rings .
" This tell us the way the ring bet is not just a function of how much cloth there is , " Tiscareno added . " There has to be something different about the feature of the particles , perhaps affecting what happens when two tintinnabulation molecule collide and bounce off each other . And we do n’t yet know what it is . "
The master component of the rings is water ice . The new analysis also revealed that organic stuff ( like those present in anchor ring D ) , as well as ammonia and methane , are ruled out as possible abundant counterparts to water .
" If organic were there in tumid amount – at least in the main A , B and century ring – we ’d see them , " explain co - author Phil Nicholson , Cassini VIMS scientist from Cornell University . " I ’m not win over yet that they are a major constituent of the main rings . "
This information is supply answers to many question we have about the rings , but it is also raising more . Cassini was a collaborative mission between NASA , the European Space Agency , and the Italian Space Agency .
