NASA images show how Saturn’s rings change as it travels around Sun

Similar to Earth’s 23-degree tilt, Saturn’s equator is inclined by 27 degrees with respect to its orbit. One of Saturn’s hemispheres tilts toward the Sun before the other as it travels through its orbit. Seasons are brought about by this cyclical change in the same way that Earth’s seasons are brought about by the tilt of our planet’s changing axis.

The complex variations in the colour and brightness of the rings are being studied by researchers as they go through this gallery of images. They are interested in learning more about the chemical composition, creation and probable lifespan of the rings. The rings of Saturn are incredibly thin, only being roughly 30-feet thick.

The boulder- and smaller-sized bits of dusty water ice that make up the rings gently crash into one another as they circle Saturn. Saturn’s gravitational field constantly displaces these ice shards, keeping them apart and preventing them from combining to form a moon. The rings as they are seen here have a different appearance since there was organic material mixed in with the water ice.

Due to its incredibly fast rotation, Saturn with a diameter of around 120,000 kilometres is flattened near its poles. On Saturn, a day only lasts for ten hours. The horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this massive gas planet are caused by strong winds. 

The subtle colour changes in the clouds are caused by smog in the higher atmosphere, which is created when the Sun’s UV light interacts with methane gas. The visible clouds and gases eventually mix deeper in the atmosphere into hotter and denser gases, leaving no stable surface for incoming spacecraft to land on.

Similar to Earth’s 23-degree tilt, Saturn’s equator is inclined by 27 degrees with respect to its orbit. One of Saturn’s hemispheres tilts toward the Sun before the other as it travels through its orbit. Seasons are brought about by this cyclical change in the same way that Earth’s seasons are brought about by the tilt of our planet’s changing axis.

The complex variations in the colour and brightness of the rings are being studied by researchers as they go through this gallery of images. They are interested in learning more about the chemical composition, creation and probable lifespan of the rings. The rings of Saturn are incredibly thin, only being roughly 30-feet thick.

The boulder- and smaller-sized bits of dusty water ice that make up the rings gently crash into one another as they circle Saturn. Saturn’s gravitational field constantly displaces these ice shards, keeping them apart and preventing them from combining to form a moon. The rings as they are seen here have a different appearance since there was organic material mixed in with the water ice.

Due to its incredibly fast rotation, Saturn with a diameter of around 120,000 kilometres is flattened near its poles. On Saturn, a day only lasts for ten hours. The horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this massive gas planet are caused by strong winds. 

The subtle colour changes in the clouds are caused by smog in the higher atmosphere, which is created when the Sun’s UV light interacts with methane gas. The visible clouds and gases eventually mix deeper in the atmosphere into hotter and denser gases, leaving no stable surface for incoming spacecraft to land on.