A new study has revealed that the dust rings around Saturn, the sixth planet in the solar system, were formed by an ancient moon colliding with the planet about 160 million years ago.
Measurements were taken by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US to map the change in Saturn’s axis over time.
In the results of the research, it was stated that other bodies were orbiting around the planet before, but due to the distance with the gas ball being very reduced, they were scattered into pieces and then these bubbles came into existence.
According to scientists, this moon called Chrysalis must have been orbiting the planet for several billion years before hitting it. And the destruction of the moon explains why Saturn’s rotation axis is tilted at an angle of 26.7.
The study’s lead author, Professor Jack Wisdom, said the chrysalis had been dormant for a long time and suddenly became active and these shells came into being.
Since the early 2000s, astronomers have believed that Saturn’s tilt was due to orbital wobbles with the planet Neptune. If the orbital periods of the two planets match, then the two planets will vibrate and the two will constantly influence each other by gravity.
The reason for the theory of planetary oscillations was that Saturn wobbles due to rotation in the same way that Neptune wobbles.
