Saturn's Rings Are Young
by Owen Borville
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and the sixth planet from the sun. Having 60 known moons, Saturn has been known since ancient times and was named after a Roman god. The most intriguing feature of Saturn is its rings, which are the most complex of any ring system in the solar system. The NASA Voyager 1 space probe provided detailed images of Saturn and its rings in 1980. Before this scientists assumed that the rings were uniform from the many collisions by the particles in the rings over billions of years. However, Voyager provided detailed images of Saturn's rings that showed that the rings are "highly structured and probably young." Evolutionists have countered by explaining that the rings could be a collision with a comet or meteorite impact and a moon. However, this possible event could have happened within thousands of years and does not imply ages in the millions and billions of years. The fact that these rings have not dissipated and remain structured cast doubt that these rings are aged at the supposed time of billions of years. In addition, the fact that other gas-based Jovian planets such as Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings still in existence that have not dissipated gives strong evidence of the youth of these rings and the planets in which they rotate around. While Saturn's rings have been known for a long time because of their thickness, the rings of the other three planets were not discovered until the 1970's when space probes captured more detailed images. Even evolutionists admit that Saturn's rings are young, particularly less than 200 million years within their proposed 4.5 billion year age for the solar system. However, creationists believe that Saturn's rings and the other planet rings are unstable and could not have lasted for more than a few thousand years. NASA scientists have also made the observation that Saturn's rings are "bright and shiny" as if they were new and the little moons embedded among the rings should have been "flung away" from the many collisions between ring particles. NASA has also observed that the rings are spreading and that the rate of spreading does not match the evolutionary age of Saturn. According to NASA, Saturn's moons are being "chipped away" by the ring particles at a rapid rate that would question their proposed 4.5 billion year age.
The Real Lord of the Rings. Science @ NASA. Posted on nasa.gov February 12, 2002, accessed April 22, 2009.
Colwell, J. Unraveling the Twists and Turns of Saturn’s Rings. NASA/JPL multimedia report. Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results from the Mission (CHARM) Presentation, April 25, 2006, Slide 33.
NASA Science Solar System Exploration. Saturn. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/in-depth/.
by Owen Borville
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and the sixth planet from the sun. Having 60 known moons, Saturn has been known since ancient times and was named after a Roman god. The most intriguing feature of Saturn is its rings, which are the most complex of any ring system in the solar system. The NASA Voyager 1 space probe provided detailed images of Saturn and its rings in 1980. Before this scientists assumed that the rings were uniform from the many collisions by the particles in the rings over billions of years. However, Voyager provided detailed images of Saturn's rings that showed that the rings are "highly structured and probably young." Evolutionists have countered by explaining that the rings could be a collision with a comet or meteorite impact and a moon. However, this possible event could have happened within thousands of years and does not imply ages in the millions and billions of years. The fact that these rings have not dissipated and remain structured cast doubt that these rings are aged at the supposed time of billions of years. In addition, the fact that other gas-based Jovian planets such as Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings still in existence that have not dissipated gives strong evidence of the youth of these rings and the planets in which they rotate around. While Saturn's rings have been known for a long time because of their thickness, the rings of the other three planets were not discovered until the 1970's when space probes captured more detailed images. Even evolutionists admit that Saturn's rings are young, particularly less than 200 million years within their proposed 4.5 billion year age for the solar system. However, creationists believe that Saturn's rings and the other planet rings are unstable and could not have lasted for more than a few thousand years. NASA scientists have also made the observation that Saturn's rings are "bright and shiny" as if they were new and the little moons embedded among the rings should have been "flung away" from the many collisions between ring particles. NASA has also observed that the rings are spreading and that the rate of spreading does not match the evolutionary age of Saturn. According to NASA, Saturn's moons are being "chipped away" by the ring particles at a rapid rate that would question their proposed 4.5 billion year age.
The Real Lord of the Rings. Science @ NASA. Posted on nasa.gov February 12, 2002, accessed April 22, 2009.
Colwell, J. Unraveling the Twists and Turns of Saturn’s Rings. NASA/JPL multimedia report. Cassini-Huygens Analysis and Results from the Mission (CHARM) Presentation, April 25, 2006, Slide 33.
NASA Science Solar System Exploration. Saturn. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/in-depth/.
