--- title: "Saturn’s Rings Are Disappearing, Scientists Say" description: "Saturn's beautiful rings are vanishing, scientists say — but it's happening slowly, at least, in a geological or cosmic timescale." date: "2022-03-28" modified: "2022-03-28" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/saturn-rings-disappearing" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "astrophysics" - "Cassini" - "saturn" - "the digest" --- # Saturn’s Rings Are Disappearing, Scientists Say ![Saturn's beautiful rings are vanishing, scientists say — but it's happening slowly, at least, in a geological or cosmic timescale.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Vanishing Act Saturn's beautiful rings are vanishing — but slowly, thankfully. As [*The Atlantic* reports](), the observable process of "ring rain," which is when planets like Saturn lose their distinctive rings over hundreds of millions of years, is perhaps one of the main things we actually know about this mysterious planet and its gorgeous accoutrements. While the rings around the gaseous planet seem to us on Earth to be a constant, analysis in recent years of footage from [NASA's Cassini mission]() suggest that they may in fact be "cosmically young," appearing somewhere between 10 and 100 million years ago, while dinosaurs were still walking the Earth — just a blink of the eye in geological or cosmic timescales. Scientists still don't know exactly why Saturn's rings formed at all, the report notes, though a prevailing theory is that if they are as young as they seem, they likely were the result of one of Saturn's older moons getting too close to the planet and starting to shred into so much cosmic shrapnel. ## Ring Wraith The good news is that it's likely that the rings' vanishing act will take roughly 300 million years. Nevertheless, the concept not only that something as seemingly-immutable as the rings of Saturn are quite new on a cosmic scale but also that they'll one day be gone is, as Japanese Space Agency planetary scientist James O'Donaghue told *The Atlantic*, "very, very sad." Nevertheless, the JAXA scientist said that there is something of a silver lining, as it were. "I’m very happy that we’re lucky enough to see \[them\]," he said. **READ MORE:** [The Long Goodbye to Saturn’s Rings]() \[*The Atlantic*\] **More on Saturn:** [*Scientists Unlock Decades-Old Mystery Behind Glow on Saturn*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()