WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Saturn's Rings

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. We're just zooming through

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<v Speaker 1>the universe trio of cool cats who apparently can survive

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<v Speaker 1>in the vacuum of space.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right, we're talking about Saturn's rings and big thanks

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<v Speaker 2>to doctor Ian O'Neil, who wrote this for houstuffworks dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>And we're talking about Saturn's rings because semi recently, in

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<v Speaker 2>the grand scheme of things, what like six years ago

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<v Speaker 2>or so, and in the time since, we have learned

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<v Speaker 2>a couple of kind of cool things about Saturn. One

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<v Speaker 2>not cool as in like, hey, it's good that this

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<v Speaker 2>is happening, but cool as in we never knew this stuff. Yeah. One,

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<v Speaker 2>in the next one hundred million years, Saturn's rings will

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<v Speaker 2>no longer be around. They're going to disappear, completely denuded.

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<v Speaker 2>And Two, because of what we're going to tell you

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<v Speaker 2>about in a second, we learned a lot more about

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<v Speaker 2>those rings and the fact that they are a lot

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<v Speaker 2>younger than we thought.

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<v Speaker 1>Chuck, that was such an amazing intro. I'm that was

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<v Speaker 1>great stuff. Man.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, Jerry just said we were on fire before we recorded.

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<v Speaker 1>So we can thank our friends at NASA for launching

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<v Speaker 1>the Cassini mission and more robe.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, NASA in the it was a three three uh

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<v Speaker 2>what do you call it? A monagatwa Sure, NASA and

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<v Speaker 2>the we got to shout out the euro Space Agency ESA,

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<v Speaker 2>sure and the utality in a space agency which is

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<v Speaker 2>not of the ISA. But it's the aside, don't.

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<v Speaker 1>Ask very nice. So this this Cassini mission, great stuff, Chuck, chuck.

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<v Speaker 1>It was flying around Saturn for I saw thirteen years.

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<v Speaker 1>I think doctor o'neilsa's thirteen years. I saw up to twenty.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they launched in ninety seven, but it entered the

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<v Speaker 2>orbit of Saturn in two thousand and four.

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<v Speaker 1>Ah, there's the discrepancy. Yeah, but we learned a lot

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<v Speaker 1>about Saturn, which is, by the way, one of the

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<v Speaker 1>gas giants of our of our Solar system.

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<v Speaker 2>Any who else is Jerry.

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<v Speaker 1>She is kind of gassy, isn't she.

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<v Speaker 2>He's a gas giant.

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<v Speaker 1>So we learned a lot about Saturn. And one of

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<v Speaker 1>the things we learned, number one, that there's tons of

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<v Speaker 1>moons around Saturn. Number two that there's some of these

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<v Speaker 1>moons might be habitable. And so as a result, when

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<v Speaker 1>they launched the Cassini mission. They were like, okay, we've

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<v Speaker 1>we've got to figure out a way to dispose of

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<v Speaker 1>the Cassini probe without just crash landing it, because you

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<v Speaker 1>know it could be lousy with earth germs on it. Still,

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<v Speaker 1>I don't want to infect one of these moons. So

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<v Speaker 1>they burned it up in the atmosphere instead. And I

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<v Speaker 1>realized that this is like the NASA equivalent of wearing

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<v Speaker 1>a mask. Explain, well, they didn't want to contaminate the moon,

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<v Speaker 1>so they burned the thing up in the atmosphere.

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<v Speaker 2>I got you.

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<v Speaker 1>It was way better on paper.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but you actually wrote that out.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Actually, some of them are so good I don't

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<v Speaker 1>want to forget them.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I gotcha.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's a good example of it.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh huh. So that's what happened, right, This thing was

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<v Speaker 2>low on fuel and so they did that. They burned

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<v Speaker 2>it up in that upper atmosphere.

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<v Speaker 1>They did, but they said, you know what we're going

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<v Speaker 1>to do, We're going to do something crazy. Cassini's at

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<v Speaker 1>the end of its mission. I'm gonna say her. Cassini's

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<v Speaker 1>at the end of her mission. She's been a stout

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<v Speaker 1>and true pioneer for US teaching us all sorts of

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<v Speaker 1>great stuff about Saturn. But one thing we don't know

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<v Speaker 1>about is what is between Saturn's rings and the planet itself.

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<v Speaker 1>That's great gap between the planet and its innermost ring.

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<v Speaker 1>What's going on there?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and like, not only what's going on there, but

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<v Speaker 2>what can we learn a about the rings and about

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<v Speaker 2>Saturn as a whole if we learn about what's going

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<v Speaker 2>on in between those rings. They thought, well, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>I'm sure we're going to find some gases. But they

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<v Speaker 2>basically thought, like, you know, it's empty in between there,

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<v Speaker 2>as Dave Matthews would, there's space between, and that's what

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<v Speaker 2>they thought. But what they found was not that at all.

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<v Speaker 2>What they found was a virtual rainstorm of particles and

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<v Speaker 2>elements and molecules raining down between the gaps. And what

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<v Speaker 2>they found out was hold on a second, these That is,

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<v Speaker 2>the rings sort of falling apart, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they're dissolving onto it's just falling into the atmosphere

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<v Speaker 1>of Saturn, which is pretty cool. But what that implies

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<v Speaker 1>is that since there's a finite amount of these rings,

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<v Speaker 1>eventually they're going to dissolve. There won't be any rings

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<v Speaker 1>any longer. And that was a big thing that they

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<v Speaker 1>did not know before. They didn't know the age of

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<v Speaker 1>the rings. They didn't know that the rings were slowly dissolving.

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<v Speaker 1>And they learned it by sending Cassini on a crazy

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<v Speaker 1>screw e mission flying orbits inside the gap between the

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<v Speaker 1>planet and its inner string, which is really really cool.

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<v Speaker 1>And I say, we take a break, we'll come back

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<v Speaker 1>and talk about what Cassini taught us.

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<v Speaker 2>Let's do it. So first off, we've been saying just Cassini,

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<v Speaker 2>it was technically the Cassini Huygens.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I didn't see that anyway.

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<v Speaker 2>But Huygens is kind of clunky, so everyone in Cassini

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<v Speaker 2>just I guess that was the Italian input. Sure, so

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<v Speaker 2>Cassini sounds better. But one of the things they learned,

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<v Speaker 2>like we said, is that these rings have about one

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<v Speaker 2>hundred million years to live, which sounds like a long

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<v Speaker 2>time and it is, but considering Saturn is a about

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<v Speaker 2>four billion years old, it's much shorter than they thought.

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<v Speaker 1>Did you say that it's raining ten tons of material

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<v Speaker 1>per second?

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<v Speaker 2>No? No, no, I didn't. That's a great stat.

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<v Speaker 1>It is, and it's hilarious that they went with ten

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<v Speaker 1>tons because it's nine thousand and seventy two kilograms. But

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<v Speaker 1>ten metric tons is ten thousand.

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<v Speaker 2>Kilograms, okay if you say so.

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<v Speaker 1>Regardless, that's how much is raining down in particulate form.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's a lot of particles that it's using every second.

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<v Speaker 1>But there's still so much of it that's going to

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<v Speaker 1>take one hundred million years to dissolve.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, totally. And here's I mean, this is this kind

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<v Speaker 2>of tough stuff. But here's how I understand it and

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<v Speaker 2>how they figured some of this stuff out was while

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<v Speaker 2>Cassini Huygens was going through that that ring plane, they said,

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<v Speaker 2>the people running the mission that that three pronged Manasata

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<v Speaker 2>as you said, said, you know what, those those rings

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<v Speaker 2>and those moons have gravitational pulls, So why don't we

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<v Speaker 2>just let it work its magic on the space and

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<v Speaker 2>let it pull it a little bit in whatever direction

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<v Speaker 2>it's going to go in and that will result in

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<v Speaker 2>these little bitty changes to its trajectory and we can

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<v Speaker 2>measure those and that'll allow us to find out the

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<v Speaker 2>mass of this thing using magic.

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<v Speaker 1>Right, Yeah, they could detect fractions of a millimeter per

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<v Speaker 1>second increases in acceleration. That's how sensitive the stuff that

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<v Speaker 1>Cassini was sending back Cassini Huyggens. Sure, it sounds like

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<v Speaker 1>Jerry lewis saying Cassini, Cassini, Huygens exactly. Hey, So what

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<v Speaker 1>they were doing was they were figuring out the mass

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<v Speaker 1>of the rings by figuring out how much the probe

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<v Speaker 1>resisted the pull of Saturn itself. Yeah, okay, And then

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<v Speaker 1>by figuring out the mass of the rings, they could

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<v Speaker 1>make a pretty good guess at the age of the rings, right,

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<v Speaker 1>because less mass would be younger, more mass would be older.

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<v Speaker 1>Because this is a These things are spinning in a

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<v Speaker 1>very tight orbit around Saturn. They're not like these solid things.

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<v Speaker 1>It's kind of like an asteroid belt, but there's so

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<v Speaker 1>much stuff in there that they actually appear as rings.

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<v Speaker 2>An solo couldn't even navigate that asteroidery.

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<v Speaker 1>Not a chance. And so the longer that they are around,

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<v Speaker 1>the more space stuff they're going to attract. So there

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<v Speaker 1>would be more masks, the older they were, less mass,

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<v Speaker 1>the younger they were. But what they found out was

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<v Speaker 1>that the predictions were way off, that what they came

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<v Speaker 1>up with was just didn't make any sense. And what

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<v Speaker 1>they figured out how to explain it was actually taught

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<v Speaker 1>them a lot about what's going on inside of Saturn.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, as they figured out in the end, that was because,

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<v Speaker 2>like we said, it was being altered by the tug

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<v Speaker 2>of gravity, but it was also being altered by these

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<v Speaker 2>big flows of material in that atmosphere at the equator,

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<v Speaker 2>which was about six thousand miles deep, and they were

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<v Speaker 2>moving slower, about four percent slower than the upper atmosphereic

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<v Speaker 2>clouds that we could see. And that was sort of

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<v Speaker 2>the discrepancy. It was that they did not know about

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<v Speaker 2>and therefore couldn't predict right.

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<v Speaker 1>So once they figured out that the mass of the

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<v Speaker 1>rings are actually much lower than they thought, they took

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<v Speaker 1>some other measurement from I can't remember, some sort of waves.

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<v Speaker 1>I guess gravitation always, but I don't think that's what

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<v Speaker 1>it was. Yes, they had a measurement from before that

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<v Speaker 1>they're like, that is way low. There must be some

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<v Speaker 1>hidden mass in there that we're not detecting from the

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<v Speaker 1>density waves. And when they did the calculations they figured

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<v Speaker 1>out Nope, that was actually a pretty good estimate. These

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<v Speaker 1>things are not as massive as you think, so they're

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<v Speaker 1>made up of fairly light stuff. And because it's not massive,

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<v Speaker 1>and because the rings are still very bright, it suggests

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<v Speaker 1>that there's not a lot of rocky crud mixed in there,

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<v Speaker 1>which suggests that they're fairly young. So they estimate that

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<v Speaker 1>the age of Saturn's rings are between one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>ten million years.

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<v Speaker 2>Old, Yeah, which is way off. Initially they said anywhere

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<v Speaker 2>it depends, but from four point five billion years to

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<v Speaker 2>maybe like thirty million years.

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<v Speaker 1>Right, yeah, but so yeah, they figured it out what

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<v Speaker 1>they think figured And by the way, I want to

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<v Speaker 1>do a whole episode on Saturn. But they they both

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<v Speaker 1>that they believe. No, it's gonna be great. Remember our

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<v Speaker 1>Venus episode was really fun. Yeah, So what they believe

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<v Speaker 1>is that either the rings are made up of an

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<v Speaker 1>icy comet that got caught in Saturn's orbit and was

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<v Speaker 1>basically pulled apart by the gravity of Saturn and it

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<v Speaker 1>turned into spread out into a ring. So what you're

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<v Speaker 1>seeing is a super spread out comet, Whi's pretty cool.

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<v Speaker 1>It's also possible it's Moon that the same fate happened

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<v Speaker 1>to it just kind of crumbled and came apart, but the.

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<v Speaker 2>Kin might say it's beach.

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<v Speaker 1>The upside of it is that we're going to do

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<v Speaker 1>an episode on Saturday, and so look for that one day.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And the upside is that this could I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>if it was an arrant comment, that could happen again

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<v Speaker 2>to another planet. So there could potentially, in another you know,

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<v Speaker 2>twenty thirty million years, be another one of our beloved

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<v Speaker 2>planets with their own rings.

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<v Speaker 1>That's right, And I sent upside on that upshot of course,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, and that of course means short stuff is app.

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