Why does Saturn have rings?
Saturn's rings are made of billions of pieces of ice and rock. They probably formed from the remains of moons, comets or asteroids torn apart by Saturn's gravity.
The rings stretch about 280,000 kilometers across but are usually only about 10 meters to 1 kilometer thick. Their pieces range from tiny grains to chunks as big as houses, and they are mostly water ice, which makes them shine brightly in sunlight.
Close to a giant planet, gravity pulls harder on the near side of an object than on the far side. Within a zone called the Roche limit, this can rip moons or comets apart. The debris spreads out into rings, and small moons called shepherd moons help keep them in shape.
Young and fading
Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggested the rings may be relatively young, perhaps a few hundred million years old, though scientists still debate this. The rings are slowly raining down into Saturn and may disappear in the distant future.
Did You Know?
Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune have rings too, but they are thin and dark, so they are hard to see. Saturn's are by far the brightest.