What Are Saturn's Rings Made Of?

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Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun in our Solar system, is celebrated for its breathtaking ring system, a marvel of celestial wonder

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The rings are incredibly thin, measuring only about 30 feet (10 meters) thick in some areas, but they stretch out for hundreds of thousands of miles (kilometers)

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What are these rings made of? They are made up of billions of small, icy particles, ranging in size from tiny dust grains to massive boulders

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About 90% of the ring material is water ice, which is thought to originate from Saturn's moons and other sources

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10% of the ring material is rocky debris, including silicate particles and other minerals

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Small amounts of frozen gases like methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide are also present in the rings

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Tiny dust particles, often created by meteoroid impacts on Saturn's moons, are abundant in the rings

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Some evidence suggests the presence of organic compounds, like carbon-rich molecules, in the rings

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The rings are divided into several main sections, labeled alphabetically in the order they were discovered: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G rings

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The A and B rings are the largest and most visible from Earth

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