Story Created:
Dec 13, 2010 at 6:59 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Dec 13, 2010 at 6:59 PM EDT
New research suggests a new explanation for those spectacular and colorful rings around Saturn.
New research suggests a new explanation for those spectacular and colorful rings around Saturn.
Experts believe 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.
The theory is published online in the journal Nature. It's based on a study written by astronomer Robin Canup at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
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