If dinosaurs had possessed telescopes and the will to gaze skyward 100 million years ago, they might have seen a very different Saturn - one without its iconic rings.
And if humans manage to survive another 100 million years, our descendants may also miss the discs of ice and dust that encircle the golden gas giant.
We live in an extraordinary era, scientists say - the brief blip in the 4.6-billion-year life of our solar system in which Saturn's rings are visible.
According to a study published this week in the planetary science journal Icarus, the material that makes up this feature is "raining" into the planet's interior at a "worst case scenario" rate. The rings are already halfway to their death.
"We are lucky to be around" right now, the study's lead author, James O'Donoghue, said in a statement.