Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Saturn’s Iconic Rings

Saturn’s rings are iconic and instantly recognizable, but what exactly are they and how did they form in the first place?

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What Are Saturn's Rings?
“The rings are mostly ice with a little bit of rock mixed in. Scientists have a better grasp of their dynamics than ever before, thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, which ends its mission on Friday (Sept. 15) with a plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, after 13 years of orbiting the planet.”

Cassini Prepares to Crash Into Saturn as NASA Reflects on Mission's Discoveries
“The probe has spent more than a decade observing Saturn, studying storms in its cloud tops, learning about its strange, striped atmosphere, probing its cloaked interior and zipping through its more than 60 moons and a ring system stretching more than eight times the planet's radius.”

Peculiar Waves in Saturn's Rings Spotted by NASA's Cassini Probe
“The rings of Saturn are embedded with billions of water-ice particles ranging in size from grains of sand to monstrous chunks. Saturn's rings also feature waves that propagate outward in spiral patterns. The new image from Cassini captures an up-close view of a spiral density wave visible in Saturn's B ring.”
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Special thanks to Amy Shira Teitel for hosting and writing this episode of Seeker!

[coltond]

Thank god she released content, one of the higher quality artists behind the channel. Let's get some Seeker Plus

[robweckert]

Love your work, Amy. Will always tune in if you are presenting. It is also great to know facts and figures are presented in metric. Thank you.

[jamesflaum]

What did Mars say to Saturn?

Give me a ring sometime

[davidjonathan]

Nice video and content! Really good hosting too :)

[AmrothEldarion]

Amy, please don't mind the comments about your hair. It's lovely just like you.

[NewMessage]

A "Perfectly ordered zone of terror" is an OCD ward the instant one patient's kids stop by to visit.

[Dansean]

Love the fact most comments are about the use of imperial units in the video. Lol

[joey_after_midnight]

I wonder if the Rings experience centrifugal force at the outer and inner edge. If so how do they stay in orbit without tumbling. Are they more like a torus of twirling material or more like a plate with a top towards the Geosychronous point in the middle ? and a bottom towards the inner and outer edge ? Do rings also exchange momentum or is it only via Shepard moons.

[alexandert]

In a sense saturn is the lord of the rings

[voodoo]

I love AMY. many videos for seeker lately

[neothewon]

I'm a simple man. I see Amy in a Seeker video, I click like.

[thenewsebs]

If only nasa had found this video before spending all that money going there

[erdvilla]

When flying through them just remember to sing "...itsumo issho no sunset beach. Shiokaze fui to big wave..." and be aware of possible Znetraedi ships on the vicinity.

[MrOmen_]

Wait a minute so Saturn has thousands of moons!

[chriscosplays]

I would really love to know the title of the background music, please. It fascinates me

[RocketLR]

Oooh, what i would give to be born in a time like Mass Effect...

[neostatham]

hehe i refresh the page= beat the commercial to it faster than 5 sek screw cvomercial

[michaelrichardson]

But I wanted to know how much material made up the rings, so your heading is misleading. Oh yeah, great hair to !!!

[eSKAone-]

Less than 100 meters thick. That's much thinner than I expected. That's super thin!

[Unmannedair]

How is it that there is only 2 types of comments here? Comments on temperature, and comments on fashion... Amy you're smashing... Keep it up... And I prefer the Kelvin system so the rest of you can roast at 373 K!