Saturn's rippling rings point to massive, soupy core hidden inside
By Tereza Pultarova - Senior Writer about 10 hours ago
The findings might challenge established models of the formation of gas giants.
The rings of Saturn, seen here in an archival photo from NASA's Cassini
spacecraft, may hold clues into the planet's soupy, mushy core, scientists say.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Saturn's rings aren't just a beautiful adornment — scientists can use the feature to understand what's happening deep inside the planet.
By using the famous rings like a seismograph, scientists studied processes in the planet's interior and determined that its core must be "fuzzy." Instead of a solid sphere like Earth's, the core of Saturn appears to consist of a 'soup' of rocks, ice and metallic fluids that slosh around and affect the planet's gravity.
The new study used data from NASA's Cassini mission, which orbited Saturn and its moons for 13 years between 2004 and 2017. In 2013, data from the mission revealed for the first time that Saturn's innermost ring, the D-ring, ripples and swirls in ways that cannot be entirely explained by the gravitational influences of the planet's moons. The new study looked at these motions in Saturn's rings in greater detail to gain insight into the processes in its interior.
"We used Saturn's rings like a giant seismograph to measure oscillations inside the planet," Jim Fuller, assistant professor of theoretical astrophysics at Caltech and one of the authors of the paper said in a statement. "This is the first time we've been able to seismically probe the structure of a gas giant planet, and the results were pretty surprising."
More:
https://www.space.com/saturn-rings-study-reveals-soupy-core
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