For decades, scientists have held the belief that the rings of Saturn are billions of years old, probably dating at least as far back as 10 billion years. A researcher from Cornell University may have just turned that theory on its head.

The new paper, published in the scientific journal Icarus, found Saturn's C ring is likely somewhere between 15 and 100 million years old – far younger than previously believed. This ring, located second-closest to the planet, was ideal for study because of its composition. Because the ring has a relatively low mass and is "polluted" with more non-icy material, it gave researcher Zhimeng Zhang her best chance to study the history of those rings, she told Sci News.

The findings were made possible by the Cassini spacecraft, which has been studying Saturn for more than 12 years. In fact, the data has been collected over the past 10 years, but figuring out the exact composition of the C ring has made it more difficult for scientists, according to RedOrbit.

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"This wasn’t low-hanging fruit," professor Alexander Hayes, Zhang’s supervisor at Cornell, told Sci News.

The key to unlocking the C ring's composition was Cassini's Titan Radar Mapper, which was able to look through the layers of foreign materials, but also into the ice rings inside, RedOrbit said. Through this analysis, Zhang realized the long-held belief that the C ring was billions of years old just doesn't seem accurate.

Zhang said she expects more data from next year's proximal orbit observations and hopes to apply the same methodology to the planet's A and B rings to learn more about their age as well, Sci News also reported.

"None of the current origin scenarios predict the rings are likely younger than 3.8 billion years old," Zhang told Sci News. "This will force a rethinking of ring origin models."

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