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Space News: Saturn moons less than 4.5 million years old based on Cassini footages and photos [VIDEO]

By Mauricia | Dec 08, 2016 11:00 AM EST
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  • A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
  • Craters appear well defined on icy Rhea in front of the hazy orb of the much larger moon Titan in this Cassini spacecraft view of these two Saturn moons.
  • The Cassini spacecraft looks at a brightly illuminated Enceladus and examines the surface of the leading hemisphere of this Saturnian moon.
  • Saturn's moon Mimas peeks out from behind the night side of the larger moon Dione in this Cassini image.
  • The Cassini spacecraft examines the rough dark-light dichotomy of the terrain on Saturn's moon Iapetus.
  • The sponge-like surface of Saturn's moon Hyperion is highlighted in this Cassini portrait.
  • The large Penelope crater on Saturn's moon Tethys. Cassini.
  • A pair of Saturn's moons accompany the planet and its rings. Dione is in top left and Tethys is below. Cassini.

Ever since scientists are wondering the ages of Saturn's more than 100 moons and moonlets as well as its rings. Several decades ago, it was ascertained that both Saturn's rings and moons were formed 4.5 billion years ago along with the rest of the Solar System. Latest results, however, both moons and rings are young based on the footages and photos taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

It was on December 6, 2016, that scientists based in Europe and America stated that the Cassini spacecraft data assessment suggested that Saturn's moons are young. The end result came from a specified analysis of Cassini data as it pertains to the planet's core and gravitational forces. The study points out that the moons of Saturn did not construct with its own planet, Earth, the solar system, and other heavenly bodies. Scientists based the conclusion on the existing distances from Saturn should be wider, EarthSky reported.

According to the scientists' statement, the new research proposes that the Saturn's moons are not older than 4.5 billion years, accepting a theory that the moons were formed from the rings of Saturn.

The latest result came from the European-based Encelade science team head started by Valéry Lainey of the Paris Observatory. It is the same team that issued new details about the Saturn rings, based on the research about the moons' orbits. That earlier study implied the rings' young age. It was published in the Icarus journal's issue for January 2017.

Saturn's moons footages and photos were taken by the Cassini-Huygens and are the most developed outer planet spacecraft that was successfully launched. The planet itself has exceptionally powerful lightning storms and aurora. It also has a remarkable cortex located at its south pole which could consume the Earth with peculiar hexagonal cloud structures located at the north pole.

Creation noted that Saturn's magnetic field opposed metamorphic dynamo concepts by aligning almost impeccably with its spin axis. The magnetosphere was, in fact, jam-packed with charged particles that came from the Enceladus geysers which later modified the field's rotation.

Until now, it really is hard to believe that the Saturn's moons have younger age as shown by the footages and images delivered by Cassini.

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