Saturn’s rings have always been an element that scientists focus on to study this giant of ours. Solar system. In theory, it is the only world that records this phenomenon, which, at first, was believed to be just traces of dust that will end up disappearing over time.
However, as you well know that nothing is said in science, a new discovery made by NASA reveals a strange behavior of Saturn’s rings, never seen before.
In order to make this surprising finding, scientists from the US space agency first analyzed data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
But they also helped themselves with information recorded by the two Voyager probes and the already retired Cassini, reported the NASA in a statement.
What did they see on Saturn?
NASA explains that the rings are heating the upper atmosphere of the giant planet. This is a phenomenon that has never been seen before in the Solar System.
It’s an unexpected interaction between Saturn and its rings, which could potentially provide a tool for predicting whether planets around other stars also have glorious ring systems similar to those of our system’s sixth planet.
On its social networks, NASA publishes an image of Saturn in which the ultraviolet radiation of this phenomenon that raises temperatures stands out.
“The telling evidence is excess ultraviolet radiation, seen as a spectral line of hot hydrogen in Saturn’s atmosphere. The increase in radiation means that something is polluting and heating the upper atmosphere from the outside,” the special agency reported.
To explain this behavior, scientists theorize that icy particles from the ring raining down on Saturn’s atmosphere cause this warming.
They say this could be due to the impact of micrometeorites, particle bombardment from solar wind, solar ultraviolet radiation, or electromagnetic forces picking up electrically charged dust.
This phenomenon is recorded under the influence of Saturn’s gravitational field that attracts particles towards the planet. When NASA’s Cassini probe plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere at the end of its mission in 2017, it measured atmospheric components and confirmed that many particles were falling from the rings.
“Although the slow disintegration of the rings is well known, its influence on the planet’s atomic hydrogen is a surprise. Since the Cassini probe, we already knew about the influence of the rings. However, we did not know anything about the atomic hydrogen content,” said Dr. Lotfi Ben-Jaffel, of the Paris Institute of Astrophysics and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, an author of this research.