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There are two main theories regarding the origin of Saturn's inner rings. A theory originally proposed by Édouard Roche in the 19th century is that the rings were once a moon of Saturn (named Veritas, after a Roman goddess who hid in a well).
Four decades later, Christiaan Huygens first suggested that Saturn was a ringed planet, and what Galileo had seen were different views of Saturn’s rings.
On Aug. 11, 2009, Cassini became the only spacecraft ever to give scientists an up-close view of Saturn’s rings during the planet’s equinox. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this image of Saturn and its rings. Like Earth, Saturn’s axis of rotation is tilted.
Four decades later, Giovanni Cassini first suggested that Saturn was a ringed planet, and what Galileo had seen were different views of Saturn’s rings.
Cassini found that much of the material for Saturn's E-ring—a diffuse ring outside the bright, main rings—comes from the moon Enceladus, which is venting icy particles and gas into space as it orbits Saturn.
Because of the 27 degrees in the tilt of Saturn’s rotation axis relative to the plane of its orbit, the rings appear to tilt toward and away from Earth with the 29-year cycle of Saturn’s revolution about the Sun, giving humanity an ever-changing view of the rings. But what were the rings made of? Were they solid disks as some suggested?
It was thought the rings were solid or liquid, but in 1859 James Clerk Maxwell proved they were made of particles and were orbiting Saturn independently. The main rings have been named in the order of their discovery; so the C ring was discovered in 1850, the D ring in 1933 and the E ring in 1967.
Saturn's rings make up an enormous, complex structure. From edge-to-edge, the ring system would not even fit in the distance between Earth and the Moon. The seven main rings are labeled in the order in which they were discovered.
The rings were first observed in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei who, owing to the resolution limits of his telescope, initially described them as two smaller planets on each side of...
It was Christaan Huygens who first proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring in 1655. The puzzles have only increased since NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 missions imaged the ring system extensively in 1980 and 1981. The rings have been given letter names in the order of their discovery.