If there is an argument as to what the most beautiful planet in the solar system is, it is without a doubt Saturn. It looks regal in the night sky with its majestic rings around it. Everyone loves to look at Saturn through a telescope and get mesmerized by its beauty.
But here’s a twist for Saturn fans, as the planet may soon lose its glittering rings. The rings are made of dust, rock and ice that are said to be more than ten million years old. This may sound a bit cliche, but not as old as the big bang theory.
The thing that makes Saturn unique from the rest of the planets are its giant rings. But imagine looking through a telescope at Saturn and finding no difference between Saturn and other planets. Oh dear! Does it feel painful?
The diameter of Saturn with its rings is 276,000 km, which is about 3/4 of the distance between the Earth and our moon pic.twitter.com/oqAZvShfy5
— Awarenergy (@Awarenergy) March 30, 2022
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However, what hurts even more is that Saturn is destroying its rings and this phenomenon is called ‘Ring Rain’.
What actually happens is that Saturn draws the ring matter towards itself, leading to evaporation of the rings. Shockingly, ten tons of Saturn rings fall prey every second.
But we needn’t worry, because the process takes at least 100 million years for the toroid to disappear and 300 million years to completely wipe out the rings.
Even if it didn’t happen in our lifetime, the thought of its destruction gives us chills!