Rings of Saturn
Page 4
 
 

The ring system of Saturn is divided into 5 major components: the
G, F, A, B, and C rings, listed from outside to inside (but in reality,
these major divisions are subdivided into thousands of individual
ringlets). The F and G rings are thin and difficult to see, while the
A, B, and C rings are broad and easily visible. The large gap
between the A ring and and the B ring is called the Cassini division.

The adjacent image is a rare view of Saturn's rings seen just after
the Sun has set below the ring plane, taken with the Hubble Space
Telescope on Nov. 21, 1995. This perspective is unusual because
the Earth is slightly above and the Sun slightly below the rings.
Normally we see the rings fully illuminated by the Sun.

Three bright ring features are seen: the F Ring, the Cassini
Division, and the C Ring (moving from the outer rings
to the inner). The low concentration of material in these rings allows
light from the Sun to shine through them. The
A and B rings are much denser, which limits the amount of light that
penetrates through them. Instead, they are
faintly visible because they reflect light from Saturn's disk (Ref).
 
 
 

Ring Structure and Composition

High resolution photographs from the Voyager missions indicate
that the rings of Saturn are composed of hundreds of thousands of
"ringlets", and that regions like the largest "gap" called the
Cassini division, also contain fainter rings (adjacent image). The
rings cannot be solid, because they lie inside the Roche limit. They
presumably represent either a satellite torn apart by tidal forces,
or (more likely) material that was never allowed to condense into
moons because of the tidal forces. The evidence indicates that the
rings are composed of particles that are mostly ice crystals, with
sizes as large as centimeters or meters. The total mass in the rings
is about the size of a medium mass moon, and the rings are only
about 10 km thick.

Rings information
Saturn's Rings
 

Name               Radius  inner
----                     ------
D-Ring                67,000
C-Ring                74,500
Maxwell Division  87,500
B-Ring                 92,000
Cassini Division    115,800
Huygens Gap        117,680
A-Ring                122,200
Encke Minima      126,430
Encke Division     133,580
F-Ring                140,210
G-Ring                165,800
E-Ring                180,000
 
 
 
 

Saturn's Rings

 

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