New models suggest Saturn's gravity shredded a moon, Chrysalis, about 160 million years ago. The ancient moon could explain two long-standing mysteries: Saturn's iconic rings and dramatic tilt.

But in about 5 percent of the models, Chrysalis would end up in an eccentric orbit that caused it to graze Saturn's surface, causing the moon to break up and allowing part of its contents to enter ...

This evidence aligns with the hypothesis that Saturn’s rings and some of its moons are geologically young. Cassini’s detailed observations provided crucial insights into the rings’ age and mass.

The moon is tidally locked around Saturn, meaning that one side of Rhea constantly faces the large planet. It completes an entire orbit of the gas giant in 4.5 Earth days. Rhea is a cold, harsh world.

Their model estimates Chrysalis was roughly the size of Iapetus, Saturn's third-largest moon. Wisdom and his colleagues theorize that sometime between 100 million and 200 million years ago ...

Phenomenal artwork depicting the Cassini spacecraft near Saturn and its huge moon Titan. Credits: Cassini Model: Brian Kumanchik, Christian Lopez, NASA/JPL-Caltech, and updated by Kevin M. Gill ...

Scientists have found that one of Saturn's moons might be harboring an ocean of water beneath its icy surface. Mimas, which is Saturn's 7th largest moon and resembles the Death Star from Star Wars ...

How one of Saturn's moons ejects particles from oceans beneath its surface. ScienceDaily . Retrieved June 2, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2023 / 02 / 230223181805.htm ...

Saturn is famed for its beautiful rings, but these rings are something of a puzzle. Now, new research suggests they could have formed from a lost moon. Skip to main content ...

Older models proposed that early moons or comets could have collided or split apart during the chaotic early days of the solar system between 3.8 and 4.1 billion years ago when violent impacts ...

Cassini found several moons orbiting Saturn, and as of 2023, the planet’s known number of moons in its orbit is almost 150. A model of NASA's Cassini spacecraft is seen at the Jet Propulsion ...