Saturn's rings are disappearing. The James Webb Space Telescope may reveal how much time they have left.

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Saturn's rings are disappearing, and we don't know how much longer they will be around. The James Webb Space Telescope may be able to help pin down an answer.

Saturn's rings are disappearing. The James Webb Space Telescope may reveal how much time they have left. : Read more

 

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"At this rate, the rings might vanish in about 300 million years. Although that may seem like a long time away, the deluge is leading the symbolic ring system to "a relatively quick death" in cosmic timescales. But the rate at which the ring material is raining onto the planet is still largely uncertain; the rings could disappear as quickly as 100 million years, or they might hang around for 1.1 billion years, astronomers say."

Okay, Saturn rings could be very young compared to the 4.6 Gyr solar system model. Jupiter rings, Uranus, and Neptune and now Quaoar has two rings too Young ages popping up all over in the solar system it seems

 

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Here is some more reporting here on Saturn ring age(s).

New study puts a definitive age on Saturn's rings: They're really young, https://phys.org/news/2023-05-definitive-age-saturn-theyre-young.html

Ref - Micrometeoroid infall onto Saturn’s rings constrains their age to no more than a few hundred million years, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf8537, 12-May-2023.

Interesting to see and follow the trend of reporting about the age of Saturn ring system. There are rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Some objects out past Pluto have double rings now too, Quaoar. We have documented short-lived asteroids that are near Earth orbiting or farther out, Centaurs, and comets that do not last millions or billions of years in the solar system (without replenishing). Juggling methods are needed to fit in with the Clair Patterson view of solar system age using meteorites (~ 4.56 Gyr).