PLANETARY SCIENCE Are Saturn’s Rings Really as Young as the Dinosaurs? A surprisingly youthful estimate of the age of the rings has stirred a backlash. At stake is our best clue for understanding where the rings came from in the first place. 1 READ LATER Saturn’s rings are largely made of ice particles, with some dust mixed in. In this false-color image, purple bands contain particles more than 5 cm across. Green regions have particles under 5 cm, and blues contain some small, pea-like particles. Giant, boulder-size chunks of ice can be found throughout the rings. NASA/JPL The Cassini spacecraft perished in a literal blaze of glory on September 15, 2017, when it ended its 13-year study of Saturn by intentionally plunging into the gas giant’s swirling atmosphere. The crash came after a last few months of furious study, during which Cassini performed the Grand Finale — a sensational, death-defying dance that saw the spac...