This means we are just lucky to be living in an age when the giant planet has its magnificent rings ... pool of mass from the rings is lost into Saturn’s atmosphere every half-hour.

Cassini performed 22 dives between Saturn and its rings, enabling scientists to determine the mass of both before the spacecraft plunged to its fiery death in the gas giant's atmosphere.

Saturn's rings are falling in on the planet as icy rain, according to researchers. Scientists say this is occurring due to the planet's intense gravity. Dr. James O’Donoghue, from the Japan ...

Saturn's ring's are a young age of only 400million years old — just a fraction of the 5billion years the planet has existed for. An international team of physicists has the most compelling ...

This means we are just lucky to be living in an age when the giant planet has its magnificent rings ... pool of mass from the rings is lost into Saturn’s atmosphere every half-hour.

he and his colleagues set out to put a date on Saturn's rings by studying how rapidly this layer of dust builds up -- a bit like telling how old a house is by running your finger along its surfaces.

This is because, sometimes, a thin layer of this cosmic dust is left behind on planetary bodies, including on the ice that makes up Saturn’s rings ... your finger along its surfaces ...

Saturn's rings are disappearing, and we don't know how much longer they will be around. Astronomers have known since the 1980s that Saturn's icy innermost rings are steadily eroding onto its upper ...

This means we are just lucky to be living in an age when the giant planet has its magnificent rings ... pool of mass from the rings is lost into Saturn's atmosphere every half-hour.

he and his colleagues set out to put a date on Saturn's rings by studying how rapidly this layer of dust builds up—a bit like telling how old a house is by running your finger along its surfaces.

This means we are just lucky to be living in an age when the giant planet has its magnificent rings ... pool of mass from the rings is lost into Saturn's atmosphere every half-hour.

Saturn’s rings ... s atmosphere at night as shooting stars. The gravitational fields of the planets have the effect of magnifying or focusing this dusty, planetary “in-fall”. Over time, this in-fall ...