Saturn is, of course, famous for its exquisite ring system, but other planets have rings as well – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune all have them, they just aren’t nearly as prominent. Now it turns out that Mars may also have once had rings, and could have them again in the future.
Read MoreMars may have once had rings, and could have them again in the future
NASA’s Cassini mission may be entering its last several months now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more cool science discoveries to be made. Some amazing new images were just posted of one of Saturn’s tiniest moons, Pan. This small asteroid-like object orbits Saturn within a gap in the rings and so is known as a ring moon. Scientists had a basic idea of what it looked like before, kind of like a walnut in earlier Cassini images, but the new images show it in much more detail and reveal how odd-looking it really is – more like a giant ravioli or dumpling. There have also been some incredible new close-up images of Saturn’s rings, as Cassini continues the Ring-Grazing Orbits phase of its mission. The images reveal intricate details never seen before in the structure of the rings.
Read MoreCassini returns stunning new close-up images of Saturn’s ‘ravioli’ moon and rings
Saturn is truly the “Lord of the Rings” and one of the most majestic places in the Solar System. Its massive ring system is well-known, but in 2009 another previously unknown ring was discovered, much larger than the others but fainter, being composed of dark grains of dust thought to originate from the moon Phoebe. Now, new research indicates that the Phoebe ring is even larger than first thought.
Read MoreSaturn’s massive Phoebe ring even larger than previously thought