A group of astronomers report that they have figured out the weight of the heaviest and brightest ring of the planet Saturn, also known as "ring B". The calculations were carried out thanks to the collected data from the NASA spacecraft "Cassini", which, among other things, can provide scientists with new information about the age of the planet's ring system, as well as how it might have formed.
Scientists managed to find out the mass of the ring thanks to the optical and infrared spectrometer installed on the Cassini. Thanks to this device, scientists analyzed the volume of light passing through the B ring and calculated the so-called spiral density waves. After calculating the data, the scientists came to the conclusion that the typical mass density of the surface of the B ring is between 40 and 140 g / cm2.
The researchers note that, despite the obvious differences in the density of the ring in different regions of the ring, the mass of individual regions of the ring remains relatively unchanged, which in turn made us wonder what exactly could cause such differences in opacity and reflectivity.
"Appearances can be deceiving," said study co-author Phil Nicholson of Cornell University in New York.
“A good analogy would be early fog over a field and, say, a pool of water. Despite the fact that the pool contains more water and the water in it is much denser, we can perfectly see what is at the bottom. In turn, it is much more difficult to see something through the fog”.
According to the researchers, it is likely that such a high opacity of Saturn's B ring may be the result of the huge volume of large particles it contains. Perhaps the cause is also an unknown aspect related to the very structure of the ring.
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Scientists' findings may shed more light on how Saturn's unique ring system formed, as well as help in determining its age. Although the mass density of ring B does not differ much from one region to another, the total mass of the ring appears to be much lower than previously thought.
As the ring develops, it absorbs more and more dust from meteorites and other sources, which makes it denser and increases mass. However, since ring B has a lower mass than previously thought, it is possibly much younger than previously thought. Scientists speculate that the ring may be only a few hundred million years old, rather than several billion as previous theories suggested.
Despite the fact that the operating time of the Cassini spacecraft is gradually coming to an end, the probe still failed to find out many of the mysteries of the amazing planet Saturn. One of the last tasks of the apparatus will be the most accurate calculation of the mass of the planet minus the system of its rings.