UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
Why is there a ring around Saturn?
Question Date: 2005-12-08
Answer 1:

Isn't Saturn just beautiful with its hundreds of multi-colored rings? However, the rings are not solid but made of very fine dust, rock and ice particles. The ice causes them to glisten. Nobody is sure how Saturn came to have such amazing rings, although scientists believe that they are debris (small bits of rock and ice) left from a moon which used to orbit Saturn. Scientists believe that something collided with the moon about 50 million years ago and the debris spread out to form the rings of Saturn. Thank you very much for asking.



Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use