Saturn's iconic rings are falling in; scientists trying to figure out how much longer they will remain

Saturn's rings are undoubtedly one of the most iconic and visually stunning features of our solar system. While the icy rings may appear to be static from our perspective here on Earth, they are falling in on the planet as icy rain due to the planet’s intense gravity.

While Saturn's rings may seem timeless and eternal, they are actually relatively young in cosmic terms, with some experts estimating that they could be only 100 million years old, which means that they might not have been present during much of the dinosaurs' era on Earth.

The fate of Saturn's rings is still uncertain, and scientists are actively working to better understand their future.

"We’re still trying to figure out exactly how fast they are eroding. Currently, research suggests the rings will only be part of Saturn for another few hundred million years. This may sound like a long time, but in the history of the universe, this is a relatively quick death. We could be very lucky to be around at a time when the rings exist," says Dr James O’Donoghue of the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology.

Dr O’Donoghue is leading research to track the destruction rate of Saturn’s rings using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory. He has previously worked for NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and also plans to solve a decades-old mystery of our solar system: why are the upper atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn so hot, when they are so distant from the Sun?