What Are Saturn’s Rings Made Of & What Do They Look Like?

Saturn’s rings are its most iconic characteristic by a light-year — but what are these space rings made of, and what do they actually look like? Although it’s just a small speck compared to the rest of the universe, our Solar System still has a lot to offer. Earth is the only known planet with life, Jupiter is a hulking gas giant with awe-inspiring storms, and Uranus’s sideways rotation is unlike any of its neighbors.

Also within the Solar System is Saturn. There are a lot of unique aspects to Saturn. It’s the sixth planet from the Sun, has an orbital period of 29 years, and features a massive surface area of 16.49 billion square miles — a considerable increase compared to Earth’s 196.9 million square mile surface. Saturn also stands out for being a gas giant. Rather than having a solid surface, the planet’s composed entirely of gas — primarily hydrogen, with sprinklings of helium, methane, and ammonia.

More notable than all of that, Saturn stands out for the rings around the planet. While other worlds in the Solar System have rings as well, none are as large or distinct as Saturn’s are. Here’s an interesting question, though: What are those rings made of? According to NASA, Saturn’s rings are believed to consist of pieces from asteroids, comets, and/or broken moons. As a result, these rings are made up of billions of pieces of ice, space rock, and dust.

What Do Saturn’s Rings Look Like?

In most pictures of Saturn, its rings appear perfectly round and very uniform. Just look at the photo at the top of this article. It shows Saturn surrounded by a series of perfect-looking rings. It’s clear that they’re separated into different sections, but the appearance of all of them is very clean and neat.

While this is true when looking at Saturn from a distance, that changes the closer you get to the planet. Looking at Saturn from millions of miles away, all of that rock, ice, and dust melds together and creates the clean lines so often associated with the planet’s ring system. If someone were to see the rings up close, however, it would look much more chaotic. Instead of perfect yellow lines, getting close enough to Saturn would reveal endless pieces of rock and ice traveling around it. Most of these are the size of a small speck, whereas others can be as large as a mountain. Saturn’s powerful gravitational pull keeps all of this moving in a fairly orderly fashion, but perfect rings these are not.

And there are a lot of these imperfect rings! The three primary rings include Rings A, B, and C. Beyond those are fainter and more recently-discovered rings — consisting of Rings D, E, F, and G. Most of the rings are very close together, though there is one gap between Rings A and B that’s 2,920 miles long. In short, Saturn’s rings are just as impressive as everyone thinks they are. They may not be the neatest or tidiest things in space, but Saturn also wouldn’t be the same without them. Who knew a bunch of rocks and ice could be so special?

Source: NASA

About The Author

Joe Maring
(1516 Articles Published)

See also  Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - How To Unlock The Red Lightsaber

Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

More From Joe Maring