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Last Post 3/29/2017 11:41 AM by  Kris Sigsbee
rings
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spidy





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3/28/2017 10:04 PM
    Hello,
    Do any other planets have rings like saturn? Do you think you could ever walk on a ring?
    Tags: Saturn, space travel, planets, rings

    Terry Kucera



    Basic Member


    Posts:328
    Basic Member


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    3/29/2017 11:31 AM
    Hi Spidy
    Yes, they do. Saturn has the brightest, most impressive rings in our solar system, but the other gas giant planets, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have rings as well. The rings are not solid, though. They are made of small particles orbiting around the planets like very tiny little moons - nothing you could walk on.

    Best,
    Terry

    Kris Sigsbee



    Basic Member


    Posts:415
    Basic Member


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    3/29/2017 11:41 AM
    Hello! Other planets in our solar system have rings like Saturn does. The gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, but Saturn's rings are by far the most complex. Saturn's rings are visible through small telescopes from Earth and have been known since the 1600s, when they were observed by Galileo Galilei and Christiaan Huygens. We did not know about the other planets with rings until hundreds of years later. Uranus' ring system was discovered in 1977 using data from Voyager 2. Jupiter's rings were first observed by the Voyager 1 probe in 1979. Neptune's rings were not discovered until 1989 by Voyager 2.

    The material in the planetary ring systems is not dense enough for people to land on or walk on the rings. Saturn's rings are made of water ice particles and some rocky material, with sizes ranging from less than 1 cm up to 10 meters. All of the particles in the rings are orbiting around the planet, and they are not really linked together in a way that would allow you to walk on the rings. In fact, the Cassini satellite had to pass through the Saturn's rings on its mission to study this planet. The Radio and Plasma Waves Science instrument built at the University of Iowa picked up the signals caused by the ring particles hitting the spacecraft as it passed through the rings. You can listen to those space sounds here. http://cassini.physics.ui.../cassini/ring-plane/
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