Rings Node Home Cassini News Cassini Mission (JPL) Press Release Images Data and Information Ringed Planets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Missions and Data Data Search . . . New Horizons Cassini Voyager Galileo Hubble Telescope Saturn RPX 1995 Uranus RPX 2007 Occultations Astrometry Downloads Data volumes Compressed archives Previews/Thumbnails Resources Tools Toolkits Glossary Contacts Mark Showalter Mitch Gordon Neil Heather Lisa Ballard Saturn’s Ring System
The rings of Saturn have puzzled astronomers ever since they were discovered by
Galileo in 1610, during the first telescopic observations of the night sky. The puzzles have only increased
since Voyagers 1 and 2 imaged the ring system extensively in 1980 and 1981. In
addition to the images, several Voyager instruments observed occultations of
the ring system with radial resolution as fine as 100 meters. The rings have
been given letter names in the order of their discovery. The main rings are,
working outward from the planet, known as C, B, and A. The Cassini Division is
the largest gap in the rings and separates Rings B and A. In addition a number
of fainter rings have been discovered more recently. The D Ring is exceedingly
faint and closest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside
the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E. The
particles in Saturn’s rings are composed primarily of water ice and range from
microns to meters in size. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on
all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational perturbations by
Saturn’s many moons, but much of it remains unexplained.
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More Links to Rings Node Facilities… Tables of ring and satellite information
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Learn more about the Voyager images
Find the Voyager ring occultation data
Find Earth-based ring occultation data
Find data from the Saturn Ring Plane Crossings of 1995
Search for Hubble images
Animations Voyager Animations
The Voyager 2 flyby of Saturn (Quicktime format, 822 Kbytes)
This animation illustrates the geometry of Voyager 2’s passage through the
Saturn system. This was a NASA full motion video clip, converted to QuickTime format.
A “spoke” movie (Quicktime format, 1.02 Mbytes)
A sequence of Voyager images was used to generate this movie showing the motion
of the mysterious “spokes” in Saturn’s B Ring.
A stellar occulation by Saturn’s rings (Quicktime format, 1.02 Mbytes)
The Voyager 2 photopolarimeter (PPS) and ultraviolet spectrometer (UVS) instruments observed the occultation of the star delta Sco by Saturn’s rings. These experiments resolved the rings down to a scale of 100 meters. This
animation shows the viewing geometry during the experiment. Cassini Videos
Cassini video index
Back to the index. Images Highlights from the
Voyager 1
and Voyager 2
cameras. Pseudo-images from the Voyager 2 Photopolarimeter (PPS)
occultation experiment. Saturn images from Earth-based observatories
including the Hubble Space Telescope. Press Releases from the Cassini Mission to Saturn
. Artwork and diagrams
of Saturn and its rings.
Back to the index. References 30-day reports from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 instrument teams.
(Excerpts from Science, April 10, 1981 and January 29, 1982.) Encounter overview: Voyager 1
and
Voyager 2. Imaging (ISS) team report: Voyager 1
and
Voyager 2. Photopolarimeter (PPS) team report:
Voyager 2. Infrared Interferometer (IRIS) team report:
Voyager 1
and
Voyager 2. Radio Science (RSS) team report:
Voyager 1. Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) team report:
Voyager 1
and
Voyager 2. Magnetic Fields (MAG) team report:
Voyager 2. Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) team report:
Voyager 2. Plasma Wave (PWS) team report:
Voyager 2.
For further reading, consult the following: Cuzzi, J. N., J. J. Lissauer, L. W. Esposito, J. B. Holberg, E. A. Marouf,
G. L. Tyler, and A. Bouschot 1984. Saturn’s rings: Properties and processes.
In Planetary Rings, (R. Greenberg and A. Brahic, Eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 73-199. Esposito, L. W., J. N. Cuzzi, J. B. Holberg, E. A. Marouf, G. L. Tyler,
and C. C. Porco 1984. Saturn’s rings: Structure, dynamics, and Particle properties.
In Saturn, (T. Gehrels and M. S. Matthews, Eds.),
University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 463-545. Nicholson, P. D., M. R. Showalter, L. Dones, R. G. French, S. M. Larson,
J. J. Lissauer, C. A. McGhee, P. Seitzer, B. Sicardy, and G. E. Danielson 1996.
Observations of Saturn’s ring-plane crossings in August and November 1995.
Science 272, 509-515. Bosh, A. S., and A. S. Rivkin 1996. Observations of Saturn’s inner satellites
during the May 1995 ring-plane crossing.
Science 272, 518-521.
Back to the index. Comment out References section –> Related Web Sites These sites contain more information about Saturn and its ring system. Nineplanets,
by Bill Arnett. Welcome to the Planets, by the PDS Central Node. Saturn images
and a Fact Sheet
at the National Space Science Data Center. Views of the Solar System - Saturn
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The
Cassini Project home page.
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