Saturn’s rings are one of the most mesmerizing sights in our solar system, yet they won’t last forever. Scientists have long known that its icy rings are slowly sinking into its upper atmosphere – this process is known as “ring rain”, and every second enough water evaporates from these particles to fill an Olympic-sized swimming…
Saturn’s rings are one of the most breathtaking sights in our Solar System, yet over cosmic timescale they are rapidly dissolving away. NASA scientists have confirmed in a new research article published in Icarus journal that Saturn’s iconic rings are being pulled into its gravity as an ever-increasing cloud of dusty ice particles, according to…
Mars lies much further from the Sun than Earth, so it doesn’t receive nearly as much heat. Additionally, its thin atmosphere enables solar radiation to quickly escape. Due to this, temperatures change drastically from day to night on Mars, without its thermal blanket retaining heat energy for long. Temperature Mars, unlike Earth, has a thinner…
Luxury living often means choosing trailer-based RV’s designed with light construction in order to be easily transported on personal vehicles, which limits how many amenities can be included within. Spacecraft custom rigs may not come cheaply, but their construction ensures decades of use on the road – as evidenced by many still being on the…
Astronomers have known since the 1980s that Saturn’s iconic rings have been diminishing rapidly since they appeared over 400 million years ago. Scientists estimate that at their current rate of decline, one swimming pool worth of water could fall onto Saturn every 30 seconds – rendering its iconic rings nearly extinct within 300 million years!…
Saturn’s rings are truly magnificent to behold and an immense source of wonder to astronomers, yet those magnificent icy structures won’t last forever. Micrometeorites from space and solar radiation interact with Saturn’s rings to disrupt them and make them electric, binding them together along invisible magnetic field lines that lead them straight towards Saturn’s atmosphere…
Pluto and its moons hold many secrets that New Horizons discovered through Alice – its sensitive ultraviolet imaging spectrometer. Instruments have detected an atmospheric haze which could contain methane. Pluto Underground team has created a unique spacecraft designed to investigate this mystery. The Mission As New Horizons will pass Pluto this Wednesday, astronomers will finally…
Saturn’s iconic rings are disintegrating rapidly. That is because their age was underestimated, causing tons of mass to evaporate every second. Astronomers estimate that Saturn’s rings will only remain visible for another 100 million years or so, according to stargazers’ research. To witness them one last time, stargazers should view Saturn when its rings are…
Many aspects of Saturn’s rings captivate human imagination like few others can, yet astronomers are discovering that their lifespan may be shorter than previously anticipated. Research published earlier this month in Science Advances and Icarus journals suggests that Saturn’s rings are relatively young compared to their cosmic peers; likely having existed for no more than…
