Saturn's rings are one of the most awe-inspiring features in the solar system but they may have had a violent creation 4.5 billion years ago according to a new theory advanced by astronomer Robin M. Canup at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, published in Nature.
Dr. Canup believes an unnamed moon of Saturn that disappeared about 4.5 billion years ago was forced to plunge into Saturn by a disk of hydrogen gas that once surrounded the planet. The disk was present when the dozens of moons around Saturn were forming. As the doomed moon made its death spiral, Saturn robbed its outer layer of ice, which then formed rings, [AP].
Saturn has 62 moons — 53 of them have names. New ones are discovered regularly by NASA's Cassini probe. Brian Cox, PhD explains the rings of Saturn in a recent BBC program.
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