Scientists have long being trying to determine just how old the rings of Saturn are — did they form at the same time as the planet, 4.5 billion years ago, or are they younger, the result of a moon or comet being pulverized by Saturn's gravitational pull?
NASA's Cassini probe provided the answer. Before it dove into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017, ending its exploration of the planet, Cassini sent back its final pieces of data. The satellite flew between the rings multiple times, and found their mass is 20 times smaller than previous estimates, only about two-fifths the mass of Saturn's moon Mimas. With that information, as well as knowing the proportion of dust in the rings and the rate that dust is added, scientists were able to determine that Saturn's rings could be as young as 10 million years old but no more than 100 million years old.
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