What are the rings of Saturn? Detailed answer

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What are the rings of Saturn? Detailed answer

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What are the rings of Saturn?

In 1610, the great Italian scientist Galileo Galilei, who first explored the sky with a telescope, discovered a strange feature of one of the planets of the solar system - Saturn. He saw some huge protrusions on the sides of Saturn. In 1655, Christian Huygens studied Saturn using a more powerful telescope. The picture that appeared before his eyes was so strange that he was simply afraid to tell anyone about what he saw! Therefore, he wrote down his observations in a diary using a special cipher. When later they were nevertheless read, they contained the following: "It is surrounded by a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching the planet itself, inclined to the ecliptic."

The rings of Saturn, which struck the first observers so strongly, are still one of the biggest mysteries of the solar system. As far as it is known, such a phenomenon does not exist anywhere else in the entire universe accessible to study. Of course, since the discovery made by Galileo, Saturn has been well studied by people. We know that it is the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter and the period of its revolution around the Sun is 29,5 years. She has 10 satellites revolving around her. The surface of the planet is hidden under an atmosphere impenetrable to telescopes. Perhaps the crust of the planet consists of minerals of various metals.

However, the main feature of Saturn is these mysterious rings. The three main rings lie in the same plane, coinciding with the plane of the planet's equator. The outer diameter of the rings is approximately 270 km. The brightest is the middle of the rings. It is separated from the outer one by a gap 000 km wide. The inner ring appears very dull.

In addition to these three, with the help of equipment installed on space satellites, several more outer, barely visible rings and one inner one, located almost at the level of clouds floating in the atmosphere of Saturn, were discovered. Saturn's rings are not solid formations, but are made up of ice-covered rock fragments that orbit the planet like small moons. Perhaps they are fragments of a satellite, which for some reason never became a single whole.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Who ordered to build another wall around the besieged city for their own protection?

In 52 BC. e. Julius Caesar's troops laid siege to the city of Alesia, where an army of Gauls rebelling against Roman rule took refuge under the command of Vercingetorix. Caesar counted on a long siege and, foreseeing the threat of Gaulish reinforcements, ordered the construction of another wall around the entire perimeter at some distance from the city walls of Alesia. In a decisive battle, the Gauls attacked the Romans located between the two walls from both sides, but failed, and shortly thereafter Gaul finally submitted to Rome.

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