Scientists: Saturn spent billions of years without its rings
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January 18, 2019
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Saturn may have flown solo for billions of years — almost its entire existence — before getting its stunning set of rings, a new study suggests.
An Italian-led team reported Thursday in the journal Science that Saturn's primary rings appear to be just 10 million to 100 million years old. The gas giant Saturn, on the other hand, is 4.5 billion years old, like all the other planets in our solar system.
The findings are based on data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft while repeatedly diving between Saturn and its rings in 2017, shortly before its demise.
By estima...
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