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Saturn has an axial tilt of 27 degrees, so this ring is tilted at an angle of 27 degrees to the more visible rings orbiting above Saturn's equator. In September 2023, astronomers reported studies suggesting that the rings of Saturn may have resulted from the collision of two moons "a few hundred million years ago". [5] [6]
Saturn has 146 known moons, 63 of which have formal names. [12] [11] It is estimated that there are another 100 ± 30 outer irregular moons larger than 3 km (2 mi) in diameter. [98] In addition, there is evidence of dozens to hundreds of moonlets with diameters of 40–500 meters in Saturn's rings, [99] which are not considered to be true moons.
Peggy is the informal name for a former moonlet in the outermost part of Saturn's Ring A, orbiting 136,775 kilometres (84,988 mi) away from the planet. The moonlet was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Team in 2013 and it may likely be exiting Saturn's A Ring. [1] No direct image of Peggy has ever been made. [4]
A ring system is a disc or torus orbiting an astronomical object that is composed of solid material such as gas, dust, meteoroids, planetoids or moonlets and stellar objects. Ring systems are best known as planetary rings, common components of satellite systems around giant planets such as of Saturn, or circumplanetary disks.
See more on Saturn's rings: No telescope on this planet would ever have been able to see this. Cassini left Earth in 1997 and, in its nearly two decades of exploration, has sent home remarkable ...
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first near-infrared observation of Saturn, highlighting details in the planet’s atmosphere and rings.
On March 10, 2006, NASA reported that the Cassini probe found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. [4] On September 20, 2006, a Cassini probe photograph revealed a previously undiscovered planetary ring, outside the brighter main rings of Saturn and inside the G and E rings. [5]
Earth may have had a ring made up of a broken asteroid over 400 million years ago, a study finds. The Saturn-like feature could explain a climate shift at the time.