Saturn is sixth planet in order of distance from the Sun, and the second largest in the solar system
Saturn's most distinctive feature is its ring system, which was first seen in 1610 by Italian scientist Galileo, using one of the first telescopes. He did not understand that the rings were separate from the body of the planet, so he described them as handles (
ansae). The Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens was the first to describe the rings correctly. In 1655, desiring further time to verify his explanation without losing his claim to priority, Huygens wrote a series
of letters in code, which when properly arranged formed a Latin sentence that read in translation, "It is girdled by a thin flat ring, nowhere touching, inclined to the ecliptic." The rings are named in order of their
discovery, and from the planet outward they are known as the D, C, B, A, F, G, and E rings. These rings are now known to comprise more than 100,000 individual ringlets, each of which circles the planet. |
