One of the most important and well-known icons in our solar system are without a doubt Saturn’s rings. Astronomers are more or less clear about what they are and the main materials they contain, but scientists have never really been sure how and when they formed.

We’re still not entirely sure, but thanks to the new simulation, things are starting to clear up a bit and we have a new theory that makes a lot of sense and is pretty interesting. Fortunately, it’s also pretty simple to understand and hints at Saturn’s rings They would be much younger than thoughtthat is, it was formed earlier than we believed.

A report published in connection with this simulation says that the rings of Saturn They were formed after the collision of two ice moons, an event that theoretically happened several hundred million years ago. The other evidence this simulation leaves us with suggests that the orbital dust and some of the planet’s moons did not emerge simultaneously with the birth of Saturn and the rest of the Solar System, but rather a posteriori.

In the attached video you can see that simulation, which is based on the theory of the collision of two moons. This was made possible by the use of a supercomputer made available by NASA and Durham University. As we can see, the collision has reduced the moons into pieces of various sizes and these they remained in orbit due to Saturn’s enormous gravitational pull.

These fragments collided with each other again, They joined together and this gave shape to the new moons. The fragments of pure ice close to the planet were those that eventually took on the ring shape we all know, turning Saturn into a truly unique gas giant. It is also believed to be very likely that the rings of this planet were constantly receiving “foreign” material through continuous micrometeorite impacts.

We also know that Saturn’s rings they have been losing mass for a long timeand that at some point it will eventually disappear. That won’t happen in a few hundred million years, though, so don’t worry, we won’t be around to witness it. This new theory is very plausible because after all, collisions between moons and planets were common during the most violent phases before the Solar System as we know it was finally settled.