Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A failed photopolarimeter prevented Voyager 1 from observing Saturn's rings at the planned resolution; nevertheless, images from the spacecraft provided unprecedented detail of the ring system and revealed the existence of the G ring. [28] Voyager 2 ' s closest approach occurred in August 1981 at a distance of 41,000 km (25,000 mi). [27]
The sizes and masses of many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are fairly well known due to numerous observations and interactions of the Galileo and Cassini orbiters; however, many of the moons with a radius less than ~100 km, such as Jupiter's Himalia, have far less certain masses. [5]
A ring system is a disc or torus orbiting an astronomical object that is composed of solid material such as dust, meteoroids, planetoids, moonlets, or stellar objects. Ring systems are best known as planetary rings, common components of satellite systems around giant planets such as the rings of Saturn, or circumplanetary disks.
As of 2024, Saturn has 146 confirmed satellites, grouped into: Ring moonlets and shepherds, which orbit inside or close to Saturn's rings. A moonlet can only partially clear out dust in its orbit, [177] while the ring shepherds are able to completely clear out dust, forming visible gaps in the rings. [178]
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
115 Mm – width of Saturn's Rings; 120 Mm – diameter of EBLM J0555-57Ab, the smallest-known star; 120 Mm – diameter of Saturn; 142 Mm – diameter of Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System; 170 Mm – diameter of TRAPPIST-1, a star discovered to have seven planets around it; 174 Mm – diameter of OGLE-TR-122b, one of the smallest ...
See more on Saturn's rings: No telescope on this planet would ever have been able to see this. Cassini left Earth in 1997 and, in its nearly two decades of exploration, has sent home remarkable ...
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.