Saturn's rings are disappearing at a 'worst-case scenario' rate, NASA says

Saturn is losing its signature rings at a "worst-case scenario" rate, said NASA scientists, and the bands could disappear completely within 100 million years.

In a study published Monday in the journal "Icarus," researchers confirmed Saturn's rings are disappearing at the maximum rate first estimated through observations by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes that launched in the 1970s.

The rings are being pulled into the planet "by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field," NASA said.

The phenomenon is called "ring rain," and it drains enough water from rings to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 30 minutes, said James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years," O'Donoghue said in a statement. "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."

Scientists are still trying to learn how Saturn gained its rings, which consist mostly of ice and rock ranging from the size of a grain of sand to that of a house, NASA said.

The study suggests Saturn acquired its rings later in its life span, instead of when it formed 4 billion-plus years ago.

"We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime," said O'Donoghue.

An animation released by NASA shows Saturn's inner rings disappearing first as they get sucked into the planet, followed by its outer rings.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Saturn's rings are disappearing at a 'worst-case scenario' rate, NASA says