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Saudi Arabia, ISESCO in Talks to Promote KSAAEM

A general view shows the center of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah, January 24, 2005. AFP Photo/Karim Sahib
A general view shows the center of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah, January 24, 2005. AFP Photo/Karim Sahib
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Saudi Arabia, ISESCO in Talks to Promote KSAAEM

A general view shows the center of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah, January 24, 2005. AFP Photo/Karim Sahib
A general view shows the center of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah, January 24, 2005. AFP Photo/Karim Sahib

Director general of Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Dr. Salim Mohammed Al Malik and Eng. Ali bin Saeed Al-Ghamdi, president of the Saudi General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection, have explored ways to develop the mechanisms of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Award for Environmental Management (KSAAEM).

During a virtual meeting, the two officials discussed the upcoming application submissions for the 2020-2021 award, and reviewed the preparations for the 9th Conference for Environment Ministers in the Islamic World scheduled in Jeddah in 2021.

The videoconference discussed the ongoing preparations for KSAAEM's third staging and the roadmap for online applications, in addition to the launch of the Award's new website, the media plan, as well as academic, technical, administrative, financial, and logistical supervision.

The two parties also reviewed proposals to increase the award's outreach in the region and the world.

The proposals will be discussed with local authorities of member states to promote their efforts in environment protection and sustainable development.

One proposal is to nominate international figures as members of the award's High Committee, and to invite institutions and corporations active on the environmental front to take part in the award.

The ceremony will be held during the 9th Conference of Environment Ministers in the Islamic World.

The officials also reviewed the preparations both for Jeddah's conference and Rabat's Islamic Executive Bureau for the Environment in 2021.

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How Old Are Saturn’s Rings? Study Suggests They Could Be as Old as the Planet

This April 25, 2007 image made available by NASA shows a part of the rings of the planet Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via AP)
This April 25, 2007 image made available by NASA shows a part of the rings of the planet Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via AP)
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How Old Are Saturn’s Rings? Study Suggests They Could Be as Old as the Planet

This April 25, 2007 image made available by NASA shows a part of the rings of the planet Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via AP)
This April 25, 2007 image made available by NASA shows a part of the rings of the planet Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute via AP)

New research suggests that Saturn’s rings may be older than they look — possibly as old as the planet.

Instead of being a youthful 400 million years old as commonly thought, the icy, shimmering rings could be around 4.5 billion years old just like Saturn, a Japanese-led team reported Monday.

The scientists surmise Saturn’s rings may be pristine not because they are young but because they are dirt-resistant.

Saturn's rings are long thought to be between 100 million and 400 million years old based on more than a decade of observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft before its demise in 2017.

Images by Cassini showed no evidence of any darkening of the rings by impacting micrometeoroids — space rock particles smaller than a grain of sand — prompting scientists to conclude the rings formed long after the planet.

Through computer modeling, the Institute of Science Tokyo's Ryuki Hyodo and his team demonstrated that micrometeoroids vaporize once slamming into the rings, with little if any dark and dirty residue left behind. They found that the resulting charged particles get sucked toward Saturn or out into space, keeping the rings spotless and challenging the baby rings theory. Their results appear in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Hyodo said it's possible Saturn's rings could be somewhere between the two extreme ages — around the halfway mark of 2.25 billion years old. But the solar system was much more chaotic during its formative years with large planetary-type objects migrating and interacting all over the place, just the sort of scenario that would be conducive to producing Saturn's rings.

“Considering the solar system’s evolutionary history, it’s more likely that the rings formed closer to" Saturn's earliest times, he said in an email.