Rings of Saturn

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Donarreiskoffer (talk | contribs) at 07:43, 10 March 2006 (removed duplicated images). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


This is a list of the 15 named rings of Saturn, and the gaps between them.

Saturn's rings; the major rings are labelled
Name Distance from Saturn's center (km) Width (km) Named after
D Ring 67,000 - 74,500 7,500  
C Ring 74,500 - 92,000 17,500  
Columbo Gap 77,800 100 Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ???
Maxwell Gap 87,500 270 James Clerk Maxwell
B Ring 92,000 - 117,500 25,500  
Cassini Division 117,500 - 122,200 4,700 Giovanni Cassini
Huygens Gap 117,680 285-440 Christiaan Huygens
A Ring 122,200 - 136,800 14,600  
Encke Division 133,570 325 Johann Encke
Keeler Gap 136,530 35 James Keeler
R/2004 S 1 137,630 ?  
R/2004 S 2 138,900 ?  
F Ring 140,210 30-500  
G Ring 165,800 - 173,800 8,000  
E Ring 180,000 - 480,000 300,000  


D Ring

The D Ring is the innermost ring of Saturn. It located inward of the C Ring, and is very faint indeed.


C Ring

File:Saturnian rings.jpg
In this image of Saturn's rings, the C Ring is the faint ring below the two brighter ones

The C Ring is one of the rings of Saturn, locating inward from the B Ring. It is wide, but fainter than the A Ring and B Ring, and seems to be composed of darker material. It is thus sometimes referred to as the Crepe Ring.

Columbo Gap

Maxwell Gap


B Ring

 
In this image of Saturn, the B Ring is the inner of the two wide rings, the Cassini Division is the gap between the two widest rings, and the A Ring is the outer of the two wide rings

The B Ring is one of the rings of Saturn. It is the innermost of the two largest, brightest rings. Unlike the A Ring, it is made of innumerable ringlets, some of which have eccentric orbits. There are also spoke-like features running across it, which are made of suspended dust particles.

Cassini Division

The Cassini Division is a 4,800 km (2,980 mile) gap between Saturn's A Ring and B Ring. It was discovered in 1675 by Giovanni Cassini.From Earth it appears as a thin black gap in the rings, but during the Voyager pass, it was discovered that the gap was full of tiny rings.

All of the gaps in Saturn's rings are caused by the gravitational pull of one or more of Saturn's moons affecting the orbits of the tiny particles of which the rings are comprised. Saturn's moon Mimas is responsible for clearing the material from the Cassini Division.

Huygens Gap

A Ring

The A ring is one of the rings of Saturn. It is the outermost of the two largest, brightest rings. Its inner boundary is the Cassini Division and its sharp outer boundary is the orbit of the small moon Atlas. The A Ring is divided in two near its outer edge by the Encke Division which is caused by the presence of the small moon Pan. A smaller, fainter division is called the Keeler Gap, and is kept clear by the moonlet Daphnis.


Encke Division

 
The Encke Division in closeup

The Encke Division, also called the Encke Gap, is a perceived gap within Saturn's A Ring.

The division starts at a distance 133,580 kilometers from Saturn's center extending another 325 kilometers. Within this gap, Saturn's moon Pan orbits.

Images from the Cassini probe have shown that there is a thin, knotted ringlet within the gap.

Keeler Gap

 
Image of Daphnis obtained by Cassini showing the ripples it induces in the edges of the Keeler gap.

The Keeler Gap is a 42-kilometre-wide gap in Saturn's A Ring, approximately 250 kilometres from the ring's outer edge. It is named after the astronomer James Edward Keeler. The small moon Daphnis, discovered May 1 2005, orbits within it, keeping it clear.

R/2004 S 1

R/2004 S 1, also known as S/2004 1R, is the temporary designation of a newly discovered ring around the planet Saturn. It lies between the A Ring and the F Ring, in the orbit of the moon Atlas. The faint, thin ring was discovered by the Cassini probe imaging team and announced on September 9, 2004.


R/2004 S 2

R/2004 S 2 is a temporary designation for a recently discovered faint ring of Saturn. It was discovered by the Cassini probe imaging team and was announced in 2005. The ring is located at 138,900 km from Saturn's center, between the orbits of Atlas and Prometheus.


F Ring

File:F Ring.jpg
The F Ring is the thin ring on the right; its shepherd moons Prometheus and Pandora can be seen on either side of it

The F Ring is one of the outer rings of Saturn. It is located outside the larger rings, just beyond the A Ring. It is very thin, and is held together by two shepherd moons, Prometheus and Pandora, which orbit inside and outside it.

Recent images from the Cassini probe show that the F Ring consists of one core ring and a spiral strand around it when seen in closeup [1]. They also show that Prometheus's gravitational attraction creates kinks and knots in the F Ring as the moon 'steals' material from it.

 
Close up view of Prometheus and the F Ring
File:Shepherd moons PIA07653.jpg
Prometheus (at left) and Pandora (at right) shepherding the F Ring


G Ring

File:G ring.jpg
The G Ring is the faint, thin line to the left of this image; to the right are the F Ring, Encke Division and A Ring.

The G Ring is one of the rings of Saturn. It is a very thin, faint ring about halfway between the F Ring and the beginning of the E Ring.

E Ring

For other meanings see E Ring (disambiguation).

The E Ring is one of the rings of Saturn. It is the outermost ring, and is extremely wide, beginning at the orbit of Mimas and ends somewhere around the orbit of Rhea. It is a diffuse disk of icy or dusty material. Unlike the other rings, it is composed of microscopic rather than macroscopic particles. In 2005, the moon Enceladus was determined to be the source of E Ring's material.