Abstract
Simulations show that the still-mysterious origin of Saturn's vast, icy rings could be explained by the 'peeling' by Saturn's tides of the icy mantle of a large satellite migrating towards the planet. See Letter p.943 Previous theories developed to explain the origins of Saturn's rings — based on collisional disruption of a small moon or tidal disruption of a passing comet — have failed to account for the basic properties of the rings, including their icy composition. Robin Canup proposes a new model in which the rings were formed by the action of planetary tidal forces on a large moon as it migrated inwards, stripping away its icy outer layer and leaving a rocky core that was eventually lost to collision with the planet. The result would be a massive ring made of pure ice, which has since evolved through collisions with meteoroids to produce the rings we see today, which are 90–95% water ice.
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