How do we know what we know about the composition of the rings of Saturn? How are we able to determine their thickness, and that they are made of water ice and rock debris?
In: Planetary Science
Well, we’ve sent probes to Saturn to check it out and tell us about it. Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 did flybys and gave us info. Then we sent Cassini that spent 13 years orbiting Saturn and sending us loads of images as well as radiation and magnetic field measurements. What we found was there were a buttload of moons, most of them very small and that the rings are really thin. Like 100 meters thick. Nasa has the images up on their website. Saturn is really beautiful.
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