In 1610, when Galileo Galilei first began to look at Saturn through his homemade telescope, he thought that Saturn’s rings were actually two moons. He called these moons “Saturn’s ears”. Forty -five years later, the astronomer Chris tiaan Huygens realized that these moons were actually a series of beautiful rings surrounding the planet. With the photographs provided by the Pioneer and Voyager probes, scientists now know more about these rings than ever before.
Saturn is the second largest planet of our solar system but this fact does not make it unique and attractive. The most beautiful and amazing thing related to Saturn is its wonderful ring system which surrounds the planet making it the most mysterious planet of our solar system. This ring system is composed of many ringlets and gaps and it is inclined to the orbital plane of Saturn by 27 degrees. The theory behind this amazing ring system is not complete till today there are lots of mysteries behind them and their origin.
History of the discovery of ring system around Saturn is also very interesting. Galileo was the first person who turned up his self-made telescope towards the sky. In 1610, he looked at Saturn and found that there is something on the both side of Saturn. So he concluded that “Saturn is not a single body but it is composed of three bodies. Middle one is three times larger than the side ones.” He called them Saturn’s children. In 1612, the plane of the ring with respect to Earth got changed and ring got vanished. Now Galileo got totally puzzled he wrote that Saturn had swallowed its children in fear of losing them in the space. In 1613, once again plane of ring changed and the ring appears again so Galileo was not able to conclude anything from these observations except surprise. He also called them “Ears of Saturn”.
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens used the 50 times more powerful telescope than that used by Galileo and concluded, “Saturn is surrounded by thin and flat rings which are somewhere touched to Saturn and inclined to elliptic.” Robert Hooke also noted the casting of the shadow of Saturn on the plane of the ring. In 1675, Giovanni Domenico Cassini noted that Saturn ring is composed of many ringlets with gaps between them. The largest gap was named Cassini Division after his name. Its width is 4800 km and is situated between ring A and Ring B.
Picture Credit : Google
