According to a new study by researchers, Saturn’s rings and moons may be younger than the dinosaurs. Researchers at the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) analyzed the collected data from NASA’s Cassini mission and computer modeling of the moons’ orbital data. The Cassini Mission’s exploration of Saturn and its moons has been on going since 2004. The scientists, hypothesized that the rings and moons of Saturn may be younger than the dinosaurs. They published their findings in the Astrophysical Journal very recently.
Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun was first discovered during the 1600’s. It is named after the Roman god of agriculture and has a pale yellow color. Back then, it was believed that the rings and moons were the same age as Saturn itself.
It was not until 2012, when French scientists discovered, that tidal effects (gravitational response) were causing the rings to loop quickly around the planet’s orbit. These findings suggested the rings and moons, which are made of frozen water, are much younger than Saturn. The earlier findings by the French scientists seem to have been confirmed by the SETI group with the latest conclusions. The SETI team of researchers now believe, after analyzing the latest data from Cassini and the computer modeling the rings are merely 100 million years old. Meanwhile, dinosaurs are 230 to 66 million years old. Saturn and the rest of the solar system is believed to be 4.5 billion years old.