Saturn's Rings Are Disappearing At a 'Worst-Case Scenario' Rate, NASA Says

A new study published in the journal Icarus found that Saturn is losing its signature rings at a 'worst-case scenario' rate, and the bands could disappear completely within 100 million years. USA Today reports: The rings are being pulled into the planet 'by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn's magnetic field,' NASA said. The phenomenon is called 'ring rain,' and it drains enough water from rings to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 30 minutes, said James O'Donoghue of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 'From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years,' O'Donoghue said in a statement. 'But add to this the Cassini-spacecraft measured ring-material detected falling into Saturn's equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live. We are lucky to be around to see Saturn's ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime.'

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