The Origin of Saturn's Rings: How the F Ring was First Created

How did Saturn gets its rings? Researchers have taken a closer look at Saturn's F ring and have managed to track down its origins.

Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system, and is known to have multiple rings and satellites. In 1979, Pioneer 11 discovered that Saturn had what was named the "F ring." This ring was located just outside the main ring system that extends tens of thousands of kilometers.

The F ring itself is very narrow with a width of only a few hundred kilometers. It also has two shepherd satellites called Prometheus and Pandora. These satellites orbit inside and outside the ring, respectively.

Now, though, researchers are looking into the formation of the F ring. According to the latest satellite theory, Saturn used to have ancient rings containing many more particles than they do today. Satellites formed from spreading and accretion of these particles.

In this case, the researchers found that the F ring and its shepherd satellites formed as the small satellites with a dense core collided and partially disintegrated. In other words, the system of the F ring and its shepherd satellites is a natural outcome of the formation of Saturn's ring-satellite system.

"Through this study, we were able to show that the current rings of Saturn reflect the formation and evolution processes of the planet's satellite system," said Hyodo Ryuki, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The findings reveal a bit more about these rings and show how the F ring formed in the first place.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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