Next time you worry about the rain, just be glad it's not pouring from outer space. A new study by the University of Leicester, England, tracked the "rain" of charged water particles that fall from the rings of Saturn and affects the atmosphere of the planet.
Of course, this "rain" is unlike the rain we have on earth. Tiny ice particles from Saturn's rings will sometimes fall out of place and descend down to the planet where they become droplets. The study, partially funded by NASA, shows how that rain influences the temperature and composition of some of Saturn's upper atmosphere. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this study, which appears in this week's Nature, shows Saturn to be the first planet whose rings interact with its atmosphere.
"Saturn is the first planet to show significant interaction between its atmosphere and ring system," said James O'Donoghue, the paper's lead author. "The main effect of ring rain is that it acts to 'quench' the ionosphere of Saturn."
How much of this rain falls on Saturn? "We estimate that one Olympic-sized swimming pool of water is falling on Saturn per day," he said to SPACE.com.
O'Donoghue says the study explains how the rings' effects on electron densities in the atmosphere have caused anomalous readings from instruments studying Saturn atmosphere. For instance, planets like Earth and Jupiter have ionospheres that glow in the infrared spectrum relatively uniformly, especially at their equators. However, scientists have wondered why Saturn doesn't fit the mold.
"It turns out that a major driver of Saturn's ionospheric environment and climate across vast reaches of the planet are ring particles located some 36,000 miles [60,000 kilometers] overhead," said Kevin Baines, a co-author.
So the rings that have always obviously set Saturn apart from other planets, at least aesthetically, are also the reason why the atmosphere of that planet seemed so unintelligible.
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