WHAT ARE SATURN’S RINGS MADE OF?
Billions of icy particles orbit this gas giant to create its iconic shape
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
Viewed from Earth, Saturn’s rings appear as a single stationary sheet encircling the planet, but this is far from reality. Spacecraft flybys and other studies have provided detailed images of the rings’ arrangement, with photographs revealing information about these unique objects orbiting Saturn. The rings are an array of rocky and icy fragments, which scientists believe to be pieces of moons, asteroids and comets. The leading theory is that these giant rocks were shattered into fragments under the force of Saturn’s immense gravity, and the result is a combination of huge, mountainsized rocks and tiny particles of dust in orbit. Many of the larger objects in the planet’s rings are coated in a layer of dust.