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Rings of Saturn, Encyclopedia

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Discoveries > Saturn III

RINGS OF SATURN

Credit : NASA

The Voyager space probes have highlighted the "spokes" which are irregularities in the rings of Saturn.
The distribution of particles making up the rings has been proved to be irregular: this phenomenon remains unexplained. We suspect electromagnetic fields from Saturn applying to clouds of microparticles appearing and disappearing quickly.

Click here for an animation showing the evolution of "spokes" during the rotation of the rings.

Credit : NASA.