Search results
- Although the individual particles that make up Saturn’s rings cannot be seen directly, their size distribution can be deduced from their effect on the scattering of light and radio signals propagated through the rings from stars and spacecraft.
www.britannica.com/place/Saturn-planet/The-ring-system
People also ask
How do you find the diameter of a Saturn ring?
What is the radius of Saturn's rings?
How thick is a Saturn ring?
What is the ring system of Saturn made of?
How many ring particles are there in Saturn?
Did Saturn have a ring?
The rings of Saturn are the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters, [1] that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material.
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7
- Part 8 - Bibliography
One of Saturn's most prominent features is the set of rings thatencircle the planet. In the past few years, we've discovered that ALLof the major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have ringsystems, and they're all different. Saturn has the largest and mostspectacular system of rings, though -- the others aren't as easy to see. From loo...
Last time I covered some basic facts about the rings: 1. They're not solid, but rather are composed of chunks of water ice,ranging from the size of an automobile or small building down to the aninch or smaller (including some microscopic dust). 2. The rings are very thin -- maybe just 100 yards or so in thickness. 3. We see the rings at different a...
SHEPHERDING MOONS
A theory was proposed in 1979 that the narrow rings might be due towhat are called "shepherding moons". It turns out that when you havea small moon orbiting Saturn just outside one of the rings, thegravitational pull of the moon on the ring particles will try to pushthe ring particles into smaller orbits; it's as if the moon "repels"the ring particles so make them orbit closer to Saturn. Similarly,if there is a small moon just inside one of the rings, the gravitationalpull of the moon on the...
EMBEDDED MOONS
The wider Encke gap is caused by the gravity from a moon called Pan.Pan orbits Saturn within the Encke gap; its gravity causes ring"inside" particles (closer to Saturn) to be pushed into smaller orbits,and "outside particles (farther from Saturn) to be pushed into largerorbits, resulting in the Encke gap. I've attached a picture taken byCassini that shows the Encke gap (the larger of the two gaps, on theright). You can see the moon Pan inside the gap. To the left in the same picture, you can...
PICTURE OF ALL THE RINGS
Above:Backlit picture of Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. Above:Backlit picture of Saturn, with captions.
SPOKES
When the Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, the spokes were nowhere tobe found. None of the early pictures returned by Cassini showed these spokefeatures, so they seem to have disappeared since Voyager 2 visited Saturn.We've since seen them re-appear, though. There's still a lot we don't understand about the spokes. What we have learnedis that they are made of very small dust particles, less than one micron(1/1000 millimeter) across. It's believed that the spoke particles have aneg...
SIZES OF THE RINGS
Diameter (distance across a ring): We typically measure distances inSaturn radii, where 1 Saturn radius is 60,268 kilometers = 37,449miles. (For comparison, the radius of the Earth is about 6378kilometers = 3963 miles.) In the first set of notes I sent you, I gaveyou the inner and outer radii of each ring, in Saturn radii. If youmultiply the outer radius by 2, that will tell you the diameter of eachring, in Saturn radii. Multiply that number by 60,268 to get the ringdiameter in kilometers, or...
RING WAVES
There are two types of waves: "spiral density waves", and "spiral bending waves"
GENERAL
1. Beatty, J. Kelly, Collins, Carolyn, and Chaiken, Andrew. (1999) The New Solar System(4th ed.) (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.) 2. Burns, Joseph A., Hamilton, Douglas P., and Showalter, Mark R. (2002) "Bejeweled Worlds". Scientific American, February 2002, pp. 64-73. 3. Elliot, James, and Kerr, Richard. (1984) Rings. (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.) 4. Lunine, Jonathan I. "Saturn at Last!" (2004) Scientific American, June 2004, pp. 56-63.
ADVANCED
1. Esposito, Larry. (2006) Planetary Rings. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.) 2. Fridman, A.M., and Gorkavyi, N.N. (1994) Physics of Planetary Rings. (Springer, Berlin.) 3. Gehrels, Tom, and Matthews, Mildred Shapley (Eds.). (1984) Saturn. (University of Arizona Press, Tucson.) 4. Greenberg, Richard, and Brahic, André (Eds.). (1984) Planetary Rings. (University of Arizona Press, Tucson.) 5. Miner, Ellis D., Wessen, Randii R., and Cuzzi, Jeffrey N. (2007) Planetary Ring Systems. (Pr...
Rings of Saturn. Surf. Density. Rings, ringlets and gaps of width less than 1000 km are listed by inner edge radius. For more details on the rings and a full listing of all small ringlets and very faint rings, see the PDS Rings Node Vital Statistics.
Radius (km)Radius/ Eq. RadiusOptical DepthSaturn Equator60,2681.000D inner edge66,9001.110D outer edge74,5101.236C inner edge74,6581.239Nov 8, 2017 · Composition and structure. Saturn's rings are made up of billions of particles ranging from grains of sand to mountain-size chunks. Composed predominantly of water-ice, the rings also draw...
- 2 min
- Nola Taylor Tillman
Sep 13, 2022 · Saturn has a diameter of 72,400 miles (116,460 kilometres), and the rings have a diameter of over 170,000 (270,000 kilometres), which is over twice the size of Saturn itself. However, this size represents all of Saturn’s rings together, and when viewed individually, their sizes vary.
Answer: The area of a ring with an inner radius of r and an outer radius of R is given by A = π (R2 – r2) and its volume for a thickness of h is just V = π (R2-r2)h.
Like Earth, Saturn’s axis of rotation is tilted. For half of a Saturn year, the ringed planet appears to bow toward the Sun, which then illuminates the top of the rings. For the other half of the year, Saturn appears to lean back, and the Sun illuminates Saturn’s south pole and the bottom of the rings.
