Saturn's rings

Wide as the sky, thin as paper

You need a telescope

Saturn's rings — Not a disk, but billions of pieces of ice lined up along the same orbit.

The numbers

What they are made of: Ice and rockBillions of separate pieces
Average thickness: 33ft(10 m)
How far out they reach: 75,000mi(120,000 km)4,100 to 75,000 mi (6,600 to 120,000 km)
How long they will last: A few hundred million years

To get an idea

If they were as thin as a sheet of paper, that sheet would be almost a mile wide.

They were born recently by Solar System standards, and in a few hundred million years they will be gone.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

In some places the particles pile up into ridges miles high, which cast long shadows.
The rings look tilted because Saturn's axis is tilted too, like the Earth's.
Galileo saw them but did not understand they were rings: he drew Saturn with two ears on its sides.
According to measurements by the Cassini probe, the rings are less than a hundred million years old.
They are falling onto the planet, and in a few hundred million years they will be gone.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

What are Saturn's rings made of?

Question 2 of 5

How thick are they on average?

Question 3 of 5

What are shepherd moons?

Question 4 of 5

Will the rings last forever?

Question 5 of 5

Did Galileo understand right away what they were?

Riddles

From far away I look like a smooth racetrack, but if you came closer you would find I am made of billions of pieces, each traveling on its own. I am very wide and as thin as can be. What am I?

Some small companions patrol my edges and keep the straying pieces in line, like dogs around a flock. Without them I would fray. What am I?

Nobody knows where I come from: maybe I am the remains of something that broke. For sure I will not stay forever, because I am falling little by little. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Look at it again after a few years: the tilt will have changed, and sometimes the rings turn edge-on and almost disappear.

Activity 2

Sprinkle sugar on a dark tray and turn it slowly: from far away it looks like a single surface, up close it is separate grains.

The words

division: The almost empty gap that separates two bands of a ring system.

Sources: Wikidata (Q844058), Wikipedia (Anelli di Saturno).