Saturn’s Rings

Handles, Rings or Rocks? Saturn’s Rings were first thought to be attached like handles. In 1659 Chirstian Hugyens observed that they were rings Detached from the planet. The Rings were thought to be thin sheets of material In the mid 19 th century James Clerk Maxwell showed mathematically that the rings could not be solid, but must be made of particles Spectroscopes confirmed this by detecting that different parts of the rings moved at different speeds, obeying Kepler’s Laws for Planets

Ring Structure There are many rings divided by gaps. The particles that make-up the rings increase in size with distance from Saturn Two large gaps divide the rings into three main rings The largest gap, “Cassini’s Gap” is named after its discoverer Kirkwood gaps & “Shepherd Moons” In 1866 Daniel Kirkwood discovered that gravity from some of Saturn’s moons create the gaps and define the limits of the rings

The Roche Limit There is a distance from a Planet at which the tidal forces from the planet will tear an object of the same density apart. It is called the Roche Limit and is about about 2.44 times the radius of the planet. Saturn’s Rings extend little more than twice its radius. Rings are composed of the debris of moons, asteroids, or even comets that Came too Close! Here we see the comet Shoemaker-Levy torn apart after getting too close to Jupiter