King of The Rings: Saturn Doughnut Ring - Infrared View

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King of The Rings: Saturn Doughnut Ring - Infrared View

King of The Rings: This artist's illustration simulates an infrared view of the giant ring. Saturn appears as just a small dot within the band of ice and dust. The ring's diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side

King of The Rings Saturn Doughnut Ring Infrared View

The 'super-sized' halo was found by Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope. To get a sense of its size it has a vertical height which is about 20 times the diameter of the planet, which is nine times the size of our planet. Furthermore, the entire volume of the ring could hold about one billion Earths.

King of The Rings Saturn Doughnut Ring Infrared View

The bulk of the ring starts about 3.7million miles from Saturn itself and extends outward about another 7.4million miles.

King of The Rings Saturn Doughnut Ring Infrared View

With it being so huge many will ask how come it was not seen before. This is because the ring is extremely diffuse and doesn't reflect much visible light but its dusty particles, despite being very cold, shine with infrared light, or heat radiation which Spitzer is able to see.

King of The Rings Saturn Doughnut Ring Infrared View

Sawera · The Super Geek Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 1902 Gender:

informative and interesting

chandoo · **Posted:** Oct 10, 2009 **Post subject:**

its really a giant ring.

ujala · **Posted:** Oct 10, 2009 **Post subject:**

Nice post