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Saturn is losing its rings quicker than expected, NASA warns
CNN ^ | December 18, 2018 | Tara John

Posted on 12/18/2018 7:29:48 PM PST by EdnaMode

Saturn's rings make it one of the most striking planets in the solar system, but scientists believe they could disappear in less than a 100 million years -- which isn't all that long when you consider that the gas giant itself is more than 4 billion years old.

New research from NASA shows that the rings, made predominantly of water ice, are being pulled apart by the planet's gravity and onto Saturn's surface as deluges of "ring rain."

"We estimate that this 'ring rain' drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn's rings in half an hour," NASA's James O'Donoghue, lead author of the study, said in a statement.

"From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years, but add to this the Cassini-spacecraft measured ring-material detected falling into Saturn's equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live," he added.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: cassini; catastrophism; clickbait; climatechange; cnn; direwarning; galaxywarming; globalwarming; hysteria; jamesodonoghue; nasa; oneweirdtrick; rings; saturn; tarajohn
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To: max americana

It seems a given that tax-eating government studies will still be providing revenue to otherwise-unemployable people 290 million years from now.


41 posted on 12/18/2018 8:43:58 PM PST by JennysCool
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To: Blood of Tyrants

reverse the Second Law of Thermodynamics


42 posted on 12/18/2018 8:46:28 PM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: EdnaMode

So who wants unsightly “planet ring”?


43 posted on 12/18/2018 8:46:41 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Moonman62

Warns?

Isn’t that a bit dramatic?

My questions also.


44 posted on 12/18/2018 8:47:32 PM PST by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: EdnaMode

Is there anything Global Warming can’t do?


45 posted on 12/18/2018 8:52:22 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: EdnaMode

Climate change?? Nonsense. This is happening because of the Zionist aggressor’s brutal occupation of Palestine!


46 posted on 12/18/2018 8:59:10 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: EdnaMode

Cow farts cause Galactic warming then ?


47 posted on 12/18/2018 9:00:25 PM PST by trotskylvalia (where nose meets the grindstone)
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To: EdnaMode
Saturn is losing its rings quicker than expected, NASA warns

"Warns"? I can't believe anyone at NASA is stupid enough to believe that anything we on Earth do can possibly affect Saturn's rings in one way or another, so I'll assume this is strictly CNN stupidity.

Guaranteed, some liberals tonight are reading that headline and feeling a reflexive twinge of guilt before they stop to wonder how this has anything to do with us.
48 posted on 12/18/2018 9:01:35 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: NorthMountain

I learned it from my secret decoder ring. I’m not worried, though -— my tinfoil hat will protect me. I don’t know what the rest of you are going to do...


49 posted on 12/18/2018 9:05:51 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: Mr. Mojo

Nah. They’re going to face the Judge of all the Earth, waaaaay before then.


50 posted on 12/18/2018 9:08:10 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: EdnaMode
As if there would be anything we could do to change it back.

How much you wanna bet they are gonna find out somehow that the rings come and go depending on the interaction with its own iron core? Like it is seasonal.

51 posted on 12/18/2018 9:09:09 PM PST by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: RightGeek

Apparently not. It’s out to destroy the whole universe, as we know it, just like the Borg! Assimilate! Resistance is futile!


52 posted on 12/18/2018 9:11:19 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: EdnaMode
"NASA warns." And???? What would NASA have us do? Spend billions on research and projects to "avoid" this phony astronomical "calamity?" Tyranny hath no bounds by the administrative state... NONSENSE!!! Pure unadulterated CRAP.
53 posted on 12/18/2018 9:15:25 PM PST by Fungi
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Well that explains it.


54 posted on 12/18/2018 9:17:58 PM PST by EdnaMode
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To: max americana

Oh no! What are we gonna do 290 million years from now then?


You wouldn’t be so flippant if you’d had planned on having your brain frozen for future regeneration, like most of them have. Algore will take up two containers, because he’s gotten so fat. Regular deplorables like you and I, will only get one, no matter how fat we get!


55 posted on 12/18/2018 9:17:59 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: a fool in paradise
It's inevitable that the rings will disappear. If not from gravity, then probably when the Sun goes into the predicted Red Giant phase.

Right now, some of the rings are renewed by one or more moons that eject material into them, probably caused by Jupiter's tidal-effect gravity on said moon(s).

56 posted on 12/18/2018 9:19:14 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: EdnaMode

Yeah, but what about Uranus?


57 posted on 12/18/2018 9:24:40 PM PST by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them)
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To: EdnaMode

58 posted on 12/18/2018 9:26:13 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: EdnaMode

That’s why I’m for cheap rings. You can replace them if you lose them. Save your money for something else.


59 posted on 12/18/2018 9:26:30 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: EdnaMode

That’s why I’m for cheap rings. You can replace them if you lose them. Save your money for something else.


60 posted on 12/18/2018 9:26:36 PM PST by DannyTN
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