Saturn rings News

Saturn formed 4.5 billion years ago, in the early years of our solar system and There have been clues that its ring system is a young upstart that attached to Saturn years afterward.

The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn`s magnetic field.

Scientists scoured images of this region, particularly those taken at the high phase (spacecraft-ring-Sun) angles, looking for material that might pose a hazard to the spacecraft.

Cassini's aim of investigating Saturn is truly a fruitful one, owing to all the amazingly informative insights into the evolution and structure of the ringed planet.

 The image was part of a mosaic that included the planet's moon Daphnis (PIA17212).

On Tuesday, May 2, at 3.38 p.m. EDT (1:a.m. Wednesday India Time), NASA's Cassini will shoot the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings for the second time in its Grand Finale.

The 20-year-old spacecraft has been investigating the ringed planet for 13 years, thereby providing scientists with numerous insights into Saturn's structure and evolution.

On many of these passes, Cassini's instruments will attempt to directly sample ring particles and molecules of faint gases that are found close to the rings.  

Beginning on November 30, Cassini's orbit will send the spacecraft just past the outer edge of the main rings. 

Pan and moons like it have profound effects on Saturn's rings, ranging from clearing gaps to creating new ringlets, to raising vertical waves that rise above and below the ring plane.