Study explains how Saturn’s rings were formed.

A recent study that was published in the esteemed magazine Science explains how Saturn’s rings were created.

Between 100 to 200 million years ago, an icy moon they named Chrysalis disintegrated after getting a little too near to the gas giant.

While the majority of its pieces struck Saturn, some of them fragmented into the tiny frozen shards that make up the planet’s distinctive rings.

It’s good to find a convincing answer, says Jack Wisdom, an MIT professor of planetary sciences and the study’s lead author.

Saturn originated at the beginning of the solar system four and a half billion years ago, but its rings didn’t start to show up until about 100 million years ago.

Similar observations were made by the Cassini probe while it was in orbit around Saturn from 2004 to 2017, but the most current research has confirmed them.

Wisdom and colleagues developed intricate mathematical models to develop an explanation that helped them better comprehend another trait.

Despite being a gas giant, Titan, one of Saturn’s largest moons, is moving away from the planet and has a tilt of 26.7 degrees.

This, according to astronomers, will affect how quickly Saturn’s axis of tilt cycles around the vertical.

This wobble frequency synchronised with Neptune’s wobbling orbit, producing a strong gravitational interaction known as ‘resonance.’

The missing Moon was given the name Chrysalis by MIT’s Wisdom, who compared the appearance of Saturn’s rings to a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.