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It was discovered using NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, [160] and was seen over the entire range of the observations, which extended from 128 to 207 times the radius of Saturn, [84] with calculations indicating that it may extend outward up to 300 Saturn radii and inward to the orbit of Iapetus at 59 Saturn radii. [161]
The rings are named alphabetically in the order in which they were discovered. The main rings are A, B and C, with D, E and F being more recently discovered. There is also a very faint ring in the ...
Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY. Updated November 30, 2024 at 8:29 AM. Saturn's famous rings are about to disappear. ... A view of Saturn's rings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured on June 20, 2019.
The Big Ring is composed of numerous galaxies and galaxy clusters that form a continuous, almost perfect ring-like pattern in space. With its diameter of 1.3 billion light years and a circumference of 4 billion light years, it is one of the largest known structures within the observable universe. The structure is made up of many galaxy clusters ...
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first near-infrared observation of Saturn, highlighting details in the planet’s atmosphere and rings.
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
J1407b's disk has a 4-million km (2.5-million mi)-wide gap between radii 0.396 to 0.421 AU (59.2 to 63.0 million km; 36.8 to 39.1 million mi), which is believed to have been created by a nearly-Earth-sized (<0.8 M 🜨) exomoon orbiting within that gap and clearing out material, in a similar fashion to the shepherd moons of Saturn's rings.
A study published in the journal Science suggests a hypothetical moon (called Chrysalis) came too close to Saturn's gravitational pull and was torn apart, forming the planet's iconic rings.