(ORDO NEWS) — Long-term observations of the giant planet have borne fruit. Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen interaction between Saturn and its iconic rings.
The planet’s vast ring system is heating up its upper atmosphere.
The discovery was made thanks to archival photographs and readings from various space probes. They have been collected for the last 40 years.
In particular, astronomers have combined observations of UV light from four NASA planetary missions.
They used data from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, data from the Cassini probe, and footage from the powerful Hubble telescope.
The images obtained during the study revealed an excess of UV radiation in the form of a spectral line of hot hydrogen in Saturn’s atmosphere.
A burst of radiation means that something is polluting and heating the upper atmosphere from outside. It turned out that this “something” are small particles of rings. They are made of ice and dust.
Parts of the rings torn off from the main array are directed towards Saturn under the influence of gravitational attraction.
The constant cascading “rain” of them modify the upper layers of the planet’s atmosphere, changing its composition. This, in turn, raises Saturn’s temperature at certain latitudes.
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