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62,120 kilometers (38,600 miles)
- The main rings (A, B and C) are less than 100 meters (300 feet) thick in most places, compared to their radial extent of 62,120 kilometers (38,600 miles).
science.nasa.gov/resource/saturns-rings-2/
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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.
- Saturn Fact Sheet
Saturn Observational Parameters Discoverer: Unknown...
- The Rings of Saturn
Diameter (distance across a ring): We typically measure...
- 3 The Rings of Saturn
Figure 3.1 A global view of Saturn’s main rings, aligned...
- Saturn’s Rings
The main rings (A, B and C) are less than 100 meters (300...
- Saturn Fact Sheet
The dense main rings extend from 7,000 km (4,300 mi) to 80,000 km (50,000 mi) away from Saturn's equator, whose radius is 60,300 km (37,500 mi) (see Major subdivisions). With an estimated local thickness of as little as 10 metres (32' 10") [ 40 ] and as much as 1 km (1093 yards), [ 41 ] they are composed of 99.9% pure water ice with a ...
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- 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...
Nov 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 in...
Figure 3.1 A global view of Saturn’s main rings, aligned with a plot of the local normal optical depth τas a function of radius (figure adapted from Colwell et al. (2009). Several subregions of the B ring, here designated B1–B4, have distinct properties, as described below and in Cuzzi et al. (2009).
5 days ago · The B ring is the brightest, thickest, and broadest of the rings. It extends from 1.52 to 1.95 Saturn radii and has optical depths between 0.4 and 2.5, the precise values dependent on both distance from Saturn and wavelength of light. (Saturn’s equatorial radius is 60,268 km [37,449 miles].)
Aug 29, 2005 · The main rings (A, B and C) are less than 100 meters (300 feet) thick in most places, compared to their radial extent of 62,120 kilometers (38,600 miles). The main rings are much younger than the age of the solar system, perhaps only a few hundred million years old.
