Scientists say Saturn’s icy rings are drinkable – under these conditions

Considering that Saturn’s distinct planetary features, primarily its icy rings, continue to attract attention, both of the wider public and the scientific community, the latter has suggested that it’s possible to consume water sourced from these rings.

Indeed, Saturn’s rings mostly consist of chunks of water ice – frozen H20 – in some places even almost perfectly pure water ice, and in the size of ice cubes at that (a few centimeters across or smaller), indicating they should be drinkable, according to the article by professional astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait from July 17.

Conditions for drinkable Saturn’s rings

However, things aren’t as simple as they might seem. First, the spectra of the rings suggests that these don’t consist of absolutely pure ice, with other material in the rings not yet identified, but probably resulting from the impacts of micrometeorites that typically comprise silicates or abundant metals like iron.

And while these won’t necessarily harm you, the US Environmental Protection Agency recommends no more than 0.3 milligram of iron per liter of potable water to avoid a metallic taste, and you should probably filter the icy water out for any silicate sediments before drinking.

Further analyses have also shown the presence of some unknown carbon-based contaminants, with one likely candidate being complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic compounds or PAHs like cyanonaphthalene, which is considered carcinogenic.

That said, there could be other types of ice in the rings as well, including frozen methane and carbon dioxide. As Plait explained, the former should bubble out when the ice is liquefied, and the latter is responsible for the fizzy nature of carbonated drinks.

Meanwhile, the astronomer has calculated that there should be about 10 quintillion liters of water in Saturn’s icy rings, after correcting for the density of ice and the removal of contaminants – “enough to keep every human on Earth well hydrated for more than a million years.”