Saturn and its famous rings
Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, is famous for its magnificent set of gleaming rings. Saturn has seven major rings and many ringlets. Saturn’s rings are formed of billions of pieces of ice, from tiny specks to very large “snowballs”. These bits of ice travel around Saturn just as the moon travels around Earth.
Saturn is the second largest planet. It is nearly 10 times bigger than Earth. It has a rocky centre, which is probably covered by a thin layer of liquid. And it is surrounded by thick layers of gas.
Big as it is, Saturn weighs less than a ball of water its size would weigh. If there were an ocean big enough to hold it, Saturn would float!
Scientists used the space probes Voyager 1, and Voyager 2 to study Saturn. In 1997, the U.S. spacecraft Cassini explored Saturn’s rings and its moons. Cassini launched a probe named Huygens to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005.
Picture Credit : Google
