Did Saturn always have its rings?  

Saturn, the sixth farthest planet from the sun in our solar system, stands out for its magnificent ring system. While we all appreciate the beauty of Saturn and are intrigued by it, not many of us know that Saturn’s rings haven’t always been there. Today, let us discover the origin, motion and evolution of Saturn’s rings.  

How many rings does Saturn have? 
Now, Saturn has multiple rings and ring regions. The entire ring system is 175,000 miles wide and the main rings are just 10 meters in height. The rings are names alphabetically in order of discovery.  

Starting from Saturn and moving outward, there are the rings D, C, B, Cassini Division, A, F, G, and finally, E. Farther out, there is a faint ring called the Phoebe in the orbit of Saturn's moon Phoebe.  

The primary rings are A, B and C rings, while the fainter, more recently discovered ones are D, E, F and G. The Cassini Division (named after its discovered Jean Dominique Cassini) is a gap 4700 kilometres wide that separates Rings A and B.  

The rings are all broad and thin in thickness and are made up of billions of ice crystals (of very pure water) that orbit the planet, interspersed with dust particles. The rings are kept in their orbits, thanks to gravitational interaction with one another.  

When and how did Saturn get its rings? 
Astronomers have always known that Saturn has rings, however, they do not know how long the rings have existed and when they came into being. The two main theories surrounding these are: Saturn was born this way and a broken moon led to the formation of these beautiful rings.  

For ages, scientists believed that Saturn was born along with its rings, back when the solar system was created from materials such as dust particles, rocky asteroids, comets, and large icy rocks. However, in 1981, during NASA’s Voyager mission, it was revealed that Saturn’s rings changed even within a short time span. It was even discovered that the rings lose their particles within a brief time period. Scientists also analysed that if Saturn’s rings were indeed as old as the planet itself, they would not be as bright as they appear, as the dust would darken the ice particles over time. These indicate that Saturn’s rings are in fact much younger than the planet!  

Another theory posits that Saturn’s ring system originated when one of its moons came too close about 200 million years back, collided with it and broke into multiple pieces, courtesy Saturn’s fierce gravity. It is assumed that following this, the pieces fell into orbit around Saturn, creating rings over time.  

Whatever may be the reason, Saturn’s rings frequently exhibit changes and also attract interplanetary dust, helping them replenish materials that are otherwise lost. In fact, NASA confirmed in 2018 that Saturn is losing its rings at a very high rate! The rings are being drawn by Saturn’s gravity as rain of ice and dust, draining water amounting to an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 30 minutes!