Saturns rings and moons were thought to have been created simultaneously with Saturn nearly 4 billion years ago. This holds true for the most distant moons including Titan, but new evidence indicates that the interior moons are a lot younger conflicting with earlier theories, according to a Popular Science report.
Saturn has 62 moons circling it, each with its own gravitational pull, which progressively widens respective orbits shifting them further away from the planet; when they align, their orbital patterns get jerked or tilted. Studying these particular shifts, a research team lead by astronomer Matija Ćuk from the SETI Institute was able to interpret Saturn’s history. The orbits of larger moons such as Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are less affected than researchers thought.
In a press release, Cuk said, “So the question arises, what caused the recent birth of the inner moons?” And “Our best guess is that Saturn had a similar collection of moons before, but their orbits were disturbed by a special kind of orbital resonance involving Saturn’s motion around the Sun. Eventually, the orbits of neighboring moons crossed, and these objects collided. From this rubble, the present set of moons and rings formed.”
Even with this evidence, questions still linger. If the moons are so young, why are there so many craters on them? More observation is needed to confirm speculation. The study was originally published in the Astrophysical Journal.