Saturn's Rings and Dynamics

Stunning images of Saturn's rings captured by Cassini, highlighting the interactions within the rings and features like F ring dynamics.

Gravity-Induced Undulations

The rich dynamics of Saturn's F ring are seen in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Most of the features are believed to be due to the ring's interactions with its shepherd moons or with small moonlets embedded within the ring itself.

Gravity-Induced Undulations

A Glimpse of Atlas

Waves from Daphnis

This image of Saturn's rings was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 13, 2017. It is among the last images Cassini sent back to Earth. The view was taken in visible red light using the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of 684,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Saturn.

Bright ringlets and dark gaps at the inner edge of the C ring sweep across this scene. The C ring contains numerous plateaus -- broad ring regions that are bright and surrounded by fainter material

Prometheus speeds ahead of two dark gores in the F ring's inner edge. The ring's bright core swerves and twirls in its wake

Pan in the Fast Lane

Capturing the interplay between light and shadow, NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward the night side of Saturn where sunlight reflected off the rings has dimly illuminated what would otherwise be the dark side of the planet.

This microscopic imager mosaic of the rock called Diamond Jenness was snapped on sol 177 before NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity ground into the surface with its rock abrasion tool, or Rat. Opportunity has bored nearly a dozen holes into the inner walls of Endurance Crater. On sols 177 and 178 (July 23 and July 24, 2004), the rover worked double-duty on Diamond Jenness. Surface debris and the bumpy shape of the rock resulted in a shallow and irregular hole, only about 2 millimeters (0.08 inch) deep. The final depth was not enough to remove all the bumps and leave a neat hole with a smooth floor. This extremely shallow depression was then examined by the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. On Sol 178, Opportunity's robotic rodent dined on Diamond Jenness once again, grinding almost an additional 5 millimeters (about 0.2 inch). The rover then applied its Moessbauer spectrometer to the deepened hole. This double dose of Diamond Jenness enabled the science team to examine t

Rings and More Rings

Roche Division

Saturn Noir

Seeing the C Ring

Vertical ring structures created by the moon Daphnis cast dark shadows on Saturn's A ring in this image taken as the planet approached its August 2009 equinox.

Dark Boundary

Pensive Saturn

The shadow of the moon Tethys is revealed on Saturn's B and C rings in this image which also includes the planet.

Seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft within the vast expanse of Saturn's rings, Prometheus appears as little more than a dot. But that little moon still manages to shape the F ring, confining it to its narrow domain.

Janus floats above the meandering clouds of Saturn. A few of the large craters on the moon are just visible

When imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft at infrared wavelengths that pierce the planet's upper haze layer, the high-speed winds of Saturn's atmosphere produce watercolor-like patterns.

Herschel on the Edge

Light and Dark Rings

This image, which at first appears to show a serene scene, in fact reveals dramatic disturbances created in Saturn's A ring by its moon Daphnis as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Saturn's unusual appearance in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft is a result of the planet being imaged via an infrared filter. Infrared images can help scientists determine the location of clouds in the planet's atmosphere.

Cassini looks toward northern latitudes on Saturn and out across the ringplane. This infrared view probes clouds beneath the hazes that obscure the planet's depths in natural color views

Saturn's moon Mimas casts a elliptical shadow on the planet south of the larger, wider shadows cast by the planet's rings. Mimas and the rings are not shown in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Much as its name implies, tiny Epimetheus (Greek for hindsight) was discovered in hindsight. It was only later that astronomers realized that Janus and Epithemeus were not the same object.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks down at the rings of Saturn from above the planet's nightside. The darkened globe of Saturn is seen here at lower right, along with the shadow it casts across the rings.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward the brilliant disk of Saturn, surrounded by the icy lanes of its rings. Faint wisps of cloud are visible in the atmosphere. At bottom, ring shadows trace delicate, curving lines across the planet.

Although the rings lack the many colors of the rainbow, they arc across the sky of Saturn. From equatorial locations on the planet, they'd appear very thin since they would be seen edge-on. Closer to the poles, the rings would appear much wider; in some locations (for parts of the Saturn's year), they would even block the sun for part of each day. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 19 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 10, 2017. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 680,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 128 degrees. Image scale is 43 miles (69 kilometers) per pixel.

This view of the ringed planet shows its tilt relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. The planet tilts nearly 27 degrees relative to the ecliptic plane giving rise to seasons in which the rings shadow each hemisphere in its respective winter

Confining Moons

Two moons of Saturn rendezvous in the Saturnian skies above the Cassini spacecraft

The Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the multiple strands of the ever-changing F ring, also sighting Atlas at its station just beyond the A ring edge. A few faint background stars are visible in the image

Moons and Gaps

Saturn's rings appear curved in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which also shows the moon Janus in the distance. Janus is at the bottom of the image and is farther from the spacecraft than the rings are.

Mid-Latitude Storms

In this image, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured some of the structure of the tenuous D ring, appearing here as light/dark banding in the upper-right of the image.

An ethereal, glowing spot appears on Saturn's B ring in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The glowing effect is an example of an 'opposition surge' making that area on the rings appear extra bright.

Moon Harvest

This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft offers a unique perspective on Saturn's ring system. Cassini captured images from within the gap between the planet and its rings, looking outward as the spacecraft made one of its final dives through the gap as part of the mission's Grand Finale. Using its wide-angle camera, Cassini took the 21 images in the sequence over a span of about four minutes during its dive through the gap on Aug. 20, 2017. The images have an original size of 512 x 512 pixels; the smaller image size allowed for more images to be taken over the short span of time. The entirety of the main rings can be seen here, but due to the low viewing angle, the rings appear extremely foreshortened. The perspective shifts from the sunlit side of the rings to the unlit side, where sunlight filters through. On the sunlit side, the grayish C ring looks larger in the foreground because it is closer; beyond it is the bright B ring and slightly less-bright A ring, with the Cassini Divisi

Although their gravitational effects on nearby ring material look quite different, Prometheus and Pan are both shepherd moons, holding back nearby ring edges in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

On the Lookout for Spokes

NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn's shadow cutting sharply across its rings as the orbits of ring particles carry them suddenly from day to night. With no atmosphere to scatter light, shadows in space are much darker than we're used to here on Earth.

The effects of the moon Prometheus create intricate formations in Saturn's thin F ring.

Circling Satellites

Mimas Stares Back

The light of a new day on Saturn illuminates the planet's wavy cloud patterns and the smooth arcs of the vast rings. The light has traveled around 80 minutes since it left the sun's surface by the time it reaches Saturn. The illumination it provides is feeble; Earth gets 100 times the intensity since it's roughly ten times closer to the sun. Yet compared to the deep blackness of space, everything at Saturn still shines bright in the sunlight, be it direct or reflected. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 10 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 25, 2017 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 762,000 miles (1.23 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 45 miles (73 kilometers) per pixel.

Daphnis drifts through the Keeler gap, at the center of its entourage of waves

Beside the swirling face of Saturn floats a small, icy attendant

This view looks down onto the unlit side of Saturn's ringplane. It nicely shows a near-arm/far-arm brightness asymmetry in the B ring: The near arm of the B ring is notably darker from this viewing geometry than is the far arm

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks down and pictures Saturn wrapped in a pencil-thin shadow of the rings just days after the planet's August 2009 equinox. The moon Epimetheus (not shown) is casting a tiny shadow on the planet above the rings.

Ring Herders

Saturn's rings, partially darkened by the planet's shadow, cut a striking figure before Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The moon Mimas is near the bottom of this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Gazing Upon Mimas

Moons and Rings of Saturn

Janus, passing between the rings and NASA's Cassini orbiter, poses for a snapshot taken by the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera.

A small icy world plies the space between Saturn's A and F rings

Seen from the unlit side of Saturn's A ring, the shadow of the moon Janus is cast across the Encke Gap.

Saturn's shadow interrupts the planet's rings, leaving just thin slivers of the rings visible in this image, which shows a pair of the planet's small moons. Helene is in the center top of the image, Epimetheus is in the lower right.

Slightly Sideways Saturn

A Privileged View

Cluster of Moons

Encke Ringlets

Prometheus Brings Change to the F Ring

Filtering the Sun

$NASA's Cassini spacecraft captures this scene showing the bright crescent of Saturn's moon Enceladus at top right. The center of the image reveals plumes of water ice spew out from fractures known as 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of the moon.$

On the Border

Prometheus and Knots in the F Ring

Atlas, Pandora and Janus

The small moon Mimas passes in front of the larger moon Rhea which is partly obscured by Saturn's rings in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Go to the Photojournal to view the animation.

Saturn's moon Janus orbits in front of the rings, which are partially darkened by the shadow of the planet in viwe from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's shadow obscures about half the rings.

Enceladus in the Distance

The north pole of Saturn sits at the center of its own domain. Around it swirl the clouds, driven by the fast winds of Saturn, as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Saturn's rings cut across an eerie scene that is ruled by Titan's luminous crescent and globe-encircling haze, broken by the small moon Enceladus, whose icy jets are dimly visible at its south pole. North is up

Three of Saturn's moons are captured with the planet in this exquisite family portrait. At top, Saturn is bedecked with the shadows of its innermost rings

Saturn's moon Janus, its rugged surface shown in shadow and light, passes before the planet's rings in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Three large and impressive vortices, including two that appear to be interacting, are captured here as they swirl through Saturn's active southern latitudes

Saturn's Rings Edge On, with Shadow

Saturn's Rings - High Resolution

Saturn's A ring appears bright compared to the thin F ring, which is shepherded by the moon Prometheus, in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring propeller features such as Bleriot since their discovery. The bright dash-like features are regions where a small moonlet has caused ring particles to cluster together more densely than normal.

Petite Moon

Cassini scientists continue their quest to understand the origin and evolution of the newly discovered features observed in Saturn's A ring which have become known as 'propellers' as shown in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn, around 10 times the diameter of Earth, dwarfs it retinue of moons. Tethys is seen here at lower right.

Two F Ring Views

Cassini gazes down toward Saturn's unilluminated ringplane to find Janus hugging the outer edge of rings

Saturn's moon Tethys appears to float between two sets of rings in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but it's just a trick of geometry. The rings, which are seen nearly edge-on, are the dark bands above Tethys.

Limb Scan

In this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft two light sources illuminate Saturn's highly reflective moon Enceladus featuring bright rings and the small moon Pandora in the foreground.

Storms in Saturn's Atmosphere

From a distance Saturn seems to exude an aura of serenity and peace in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. In spite of this appearance, Saturn is an active and dynamic world. Mimas is seen to the upper-right of Saturn.

Children of Saturn

Janus is spotted over Saturn's north pole in this image while Mimas' shadow glides across Saturn in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Janus is the faint dot that appears just above Saturn's north pole.

Moons in Transit

Prometheus and the F Ring

Saturn's moon Dione passes in front of the larger moon Titan, as seen from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This image is part of a mutual event sequence in which one moon passes close to or in front of another.

Rings and Moons of Saturn

The night sides of Saturn and Tethys are dark places indeed. This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows shadows are darker areas than sunlit areas, and in space, with no air to scatter the light, shadows can appear almost totally black.

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