Since the time of Galileo, Saturn’s rings have remained an unexplained mystery. A new idea may have finally solved the longstanding puzzle.
Of all the planets visible in the night sky, either with the naked eye or the aid of a powerful telescope, none is more recognizable or iconic than Saturn. With its giant system of rings, Saturn’s appearance is immediately discernible, setting it apart from all the other known planets. First observed as “ears” by Galileo in 1609, a sharper view reveals that Saturn doesn’t have a shape like an amphibian’s eyes, but rather an expansive set of rings, detached and separated from the planet it surrounds. Over time, gaps, moons, moonlets, and a plethora of other features have been found above, below, inside, outside, and even within Saturn’s rings.
None of the rocky planets, asteroids, or known Kuiper belt objects have a system of rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune possess them, but they’re all much fainter, sparser, smaller, and less massive than Saturn’s. In addition, Saturn’s rings are:
- significantly tilted with respect to the planet’s axis of rotation,
- are made almost exclusively of water-ice,
