Are the Saturn's rings really as young as the dinosaurs?

Explore the intriguing history of Saturn's rings, which are speculated to have formed roughly 100 million years ago following the monumental disruption of one of its icy moons by the planet's immense gravity. This study delves into the profound relationship between the formation of these celestial rings and the outward migration of Titan, one of the prominent moons of this gaseous behemoth. 

The age of Saturn's rings has been the subject of heated scientific debate for countless years. While some researchers propose that the rings are as ancient as the planet itself, a ground-breaking estimation by two MIT scientists in the early 1980s suggested their comparatively youthful age of 100 million years, a calculation based on the velocity of the rings and the frequency at which they collide and absorb additional matter. 

Our understanding of Saturn's rings has been significantly enhanced by the invaluable data collected by the Cassini probe. In 2017, it analyzed the composition of the rings, revealing that a mere one per cent were comprised of impurities, implying their possible age of 100 million years. The prevailing scientific theory suggests that a Saturnian moon was displaced from its original orbit in the remote past, leading to a close encounter with the gas giant. This cataclysmic event likely resulted in a debris field of ice and dust fragments that eventually coalesced into the iconic rings that captivate astronomers to this day.