The rings of Saturn have puzzled astronomers ever since they were discovered by
Galileo in 1610, during the first telescopic observations of the night sky.
The puzzles have only increased
since Voyagers 1 and 2 imaged the ring system extensively in 1980 and 1981. In
addition to the images, several Voyager instruments observed occultations of
the ring system with radial resolution as fine as 100 meters. The rings have
been given letter names in the order of their discovery. The main rings are,
working outward from the planet, known as C, B, and A. The Cassini Division is
the largest gap in the rings and separates Rings B and A. In addition a number
of fainter rings have been discovered more recently. The D Ring is exceedingly
faint and closest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside
the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E. The
particles in Saturn's rings are composed primarily of water ice and range from
microns to meters in size. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on
all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational perturbations by
Saturn's many moons, but much of it remains unexplained.
This animation illustrates the geometry of Voyager 2's passage through the
Saturn system. This was a NASA full motion video clip, converted to
QuickTime format.
The Voyager 2
photopolarimeter (PPS) and
ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS) instruments observed the occultation
of the star delta Sco by Saturn's rings.
These experiments resolved the rings down to a scale of 100 meters. This
animation shows the viewing geometry during the experiment.
Keywords for Rings Node internal indexing:
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quicktime mov reference references text picture pictures
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Pan Atlas Prometheus Pandora Epimetheus Janus Mimas Enceladus Tethys
Telesto Calypso Dione Helene Rhea Titan Hyperion Iapetus Phoebe
S/1981 S13 S 13
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