Genesis

Thankfully, at some point in the past 4.5 billion years, the cosmos gave Earth’s neighborhood an upgrade: It put a big, bright, icy ring system around Saturn. But scientists don’t agree on when Saturn’s rings formed—or how the bangles even came to be. And that’s been true for decades. In a twist, it turns out that the genesis of one of the solar system’s iconic features is still an unsolved mystery.

“The planet was formed at a certain point during the formation of the solar system, and we don’t know if the rings formed at the same time or if they were formed much later,” says Cornell University astrophysicist Maryame El Moutamid. “And the reason why it’s so interesting is not only to know that but to understand the Saturn system—we have a planet, a ring system, and a moon system, and we think there is a connection between the rings and the moons.”