NASA’s Cassini reveals the full glory of Saturn’s rings
![](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1wb_w53OuEAbGHM2HWOBDMQ.jpeg?w=480&h=270&crop=1)
They’re even more spectacular in the close-up detail it delivers.
“This then, I thought, as I looked round about me, is the representation of history. It requires a falsification of perspective. We, the survivors, see everything from above, see everything at once, and still we do not know how it was.” –W.G. Sebald
Saturn is remarkable in a number of ways; among all the planets we know of, it’s the least dense, and also the only one with a spectacularly visible set of rings.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*sMEB0Jw3uf7W8b98.jpeg)
Composed of icy, dust-like material, these rings aren’t solid, but made up of particles that pass each other, sticking together briefly and torn apart by tidal forces.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*mwcYOl-PqABW1om0.jpeg)
Snowballs and planetesimals coalesce, only to be torn apart by tidal forces exerted by Saturn and its passing moons.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*477_rEkiHg6-A7a9.jpeg)
Gaps in the inner rings are caused by the gravitational presence of moons themselves, while many outer rings — like Saturn’s E-ring — are actuallycaused by emission from moons themselves.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*1x7IJ2SOTLKPmFky.jpeg)
The main rings extend from 7,000 km to 80,000 km above Saturn’s equator: larger than Saturn’s radius.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*eT0IN3ks5oxCGNrn.jpeg)
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*GNpy39hq5flzhjwv.jpeg)
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*vp6ttdHeI1gw_c2x.jpeg)
The ring system itself is just 10 meters to 1 kilometer thick all the way through, and is likely as old as Saturn itself.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*D4KG86V3kbpVKis4.jpeg)
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*6324FTw5eus3if40.jpeg)
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2560/0*ncy7Okb50GOZqQko.jpeg)
Composed of 99.9% water-ice, the ring system has thousands of thin gaps, and was thicker and more varied in the past.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*5H3mlCxnlo85clyQ.jpeg)
The once-rocky material has coalesced into moons, but the watery rings will remain for as long as our Solar System exists.
Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object in pictures and other visuals, with no more than 200 words of text.
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