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Saturn takes about 10.7 hours (no one knows precisely) to rotate once on its axis—a Saturn “day”—and 29 Earth years to orbit the sun. Saturn is a gas giant and does not have a solid ...
Saturn’s rings are seen as viewed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which obtained the images that comprise this mosaic at a distance of approximately 450,000 miles from Saturn April 25, 2007.
The rings would initially have been much more massive (≈1,000 times) and broader than at present; material in the outer portions of the rings would have coalesced into the innermost moons of Saturn (those closest to Saturn), out to Tethys, also explaining the lack of rocky material in the composition of most of these moons. [65]
Fainter planetary rings can form as a result of meteoroid impacts with moons orbiting around the planet or, in the case of Saturn's E-ring, the ejecta of cryovolcanic material. [6] [7] Ring systems may form around centaurs when they are tidally disrupted in a close encounter (within 0.4 to 0.8 times the Roche limit) with a giant planet.
An artist's impression of Rhea's rings. The density of the particles is exaggerated greatly to aid visibility. [1] Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, may have a tenuous ring system consisting of three narrow, relatively dense bands within a particulate disk. This would be the first discovery of rings around a moon.
On Monday, Aug. 2, Saturn will officially reach opposition, meaning that it will appear opposite of the sun from the perspective of the Earth. Saturn is at opposi See the rings of Saturn during ...
This hypothesis is less applicable to Iapetus, which orbits far beyond the rings. One scientist has suggested that Iapetus swept up a ring before being somehow expelled to its current, distant orbit. [2] Others think it was stationary and it is the rings that have been pulled away from it, falling into Saturn's gravity field.
Saturn’s autumnal equinox is expected to occur on May 6, 2025. Spying Saturn’s spokes The NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft captured the first evidence of the spokes in the 1980s.