There were news about new study suggesting that the magnificent rings of Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn are made up of pieces of Pluto-like dwarf planets that strayed too close to the giant planets a long time ago.
Astronomers are hinting that there are actually thousands of Pluto-size bodies that once dwelled in the Kuiper Belt, which is the ring of frigid objects beyond Neptune's orbit, just shortly after the solar system came into form.
But things drastically changed roughly four billion years ago. During that period, scientists believed that Saturn, Uranus and Neptune migrated a little bit, stirring up and tampering on both the Kuiper Belt and the main asteroid belt that resides between Mars and Jupiter.
How the rings came together
Theorists believe that the resulting gravitational pull has sent many objects in these two realms penetrating towards the inner solar system, causing a period of increased cosmic impacts known as the Late Heavy Bombardment.
In recent news, a new study conducted by a team of researchers led by Ryuki Hyodo of Kobe University in Japan made calculations about a fair number of scattered Kuiper Belt objects probably incorporated themselves around these giant planets during this period.
In fact, according to what the group has found, multiple dwarf planet bodies have probably come close enough to Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to get instantly torn apart by these planets' powerful gravitational tugs, causing them to go around and from their infamous rings.
These dwarf planets, later on, formed the rings of these giant planets
Moreover, reports confirmed that computer simulations performed by the group concluded that about up to 10 percent of a shattered dwarf planet's mass was captured in and orbited around the planet that destroyed it.
Additionally, these captured fragments of these once dwarf planets have probably slammed into each other multiple times over the eons, which then resulted in the creation of tiny pieces that would then make up the rings of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune today.
