We knew nothing about the structure in Saturn's rings.

我们对土环结构一无所知。

Their mass was the missing piece of the puzzle to determine their age.

“土环质量是确定其年龄缺失线索。”

They may look for water on Mars or take close-up pictures of Saturn's rings.

这些卫或是在火上寻找水，或是拍摄土环特写照片。

And just like the rings of Saturn, Earth's rings wouldn't last forever.

并且就像土环一行环不会永存。

The data suggests that Saturn's rings are young by celestial body standards, that is possibly a few hundred million years old.

这些数据表明，按照天体标准，土环还很年轻，可能只有几亿年历史。

One theory is that a huge asteroid struck earth with such force that rock and debris were shot into orbit around the planet like the rings of Saturn.

有一种理论认为，一颗小行撞击力量很，导致岩石和碎片像进入土环一环绕轨道。

A ring of debris formed around the Earth, sort of like Saturn's rings, unlike Saturn's rings that all collected into our moon.

围绕形成碎片环，有点像土环，不像土环都聚集在我们卫上。

The bump is the result of the particles that make up the ring becoming distorted by the presence of something large.

新物体出现使得土环变得扭曲，这个凸起就是构成土环颗粒组成。

As it plowed through the material around the proto-Saturn, the moon's icy layer got stripped off, forming the rings.

当它穿过原始土周围物质时，卫冰层被剥离，形成了土环。

And then we go beyond the moon, beyond Mars, and we sail through the rings of Saturn.

然后我们将超越月、火，穿越土环。

In addition, at this point in the future the rings around the planet Saturn will no longer exist.

此外，在未来这个时候，土周围环将不复存在。

I have just imagined flying along in a shuttlecraft across the ring right close to the rings.

我只是想象着乘坐航天飞机飞过土环，就在离土环很近方。

The substances are the same material that creates one of Saturn's rings, called the " E" ring.

这些物质与形成土环之一“E”环物质相同。

What are Saturn's rings believed to be made of?

土环被认为是由什么构成？

And remember, Saturn is oblate, so as the rings formed they would've felt a gravitational tug from Saturn's equatorial bulge, centering them right over the planet's midline.

记住，土是扁形，所以当土环形成时候，它会受到来自土赤道隆起引力，使之处于土中线上。

But it's as Cassini captures images with the sun directly above the equator, that the most surprising feature of the rings emerges.

但是，当卡西尼号拍摄到太阳直射赤道上方图像时，土环最令人惊讶特征出现了。

And when they crunched the numbers, the data suggested an age of no more than 100 million years.

当他们运算这些数字时，数据显示土环年龄不超过1亿年。

The pieces of ice and rock that form rings around Saturn are not considered moons themselves, NASA said.

NASA说，围绕土形成环冰块和岩石本身并不被认为是卫。

We knew this was going to be a time for us to investigate the third dimension, something that you don't get to see when you just look at picture of Saturn's rings.

我们知道这将是我们研究三维空间一次机会，这是你在观看土环图片时无法看到东西。

So yeah, Saturn's rings are flat.

所以土环确实非常扁平。