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Saturn's rings

On the reference date the Sun stands 13.35 degrees above the ring plane, and the rings show their lit north face.

See it in the tour: chapter ringed world, shot 1.2.

The rings by radius

Saturn's equator is 60,268 km from its centre physics. The rings start outside it.

• The C ring begins at 74,658 km.
• The B ring, the brightest, runs from 92,000 to 117,580 km.
• The Cassini Division lies from there out to 122,170 km.
• The Encke Gap cuts the A ring at 133,400 to 133,740 km, and the A ring ends at 136,775 km.
• The F ring is at 140,180 km and the G ring ends near 175,000 km.
• The E ring is dense within about 480,000 km physics.

The Sun over the rings

Saturn's axis is tilted 26.73° physics. Over a Saturn year the Sun's height above the ring plane swings between plus and minus 26.7°. Each time it passes zero, the rings go edge-on to the Sun and nearly vanish. The crossings fall about March 2084, December 2097 and September 2113 physics.

On the reference date, 1 July 2100, the Sun is +13.35° and lights the north face physics.

• May 2095: −14.3°, south face lit.
• January 2098: +0.6°, six weeks after the ring-plane crossing.
• July 2100: +13.35°, north face lit.
• April 2102: +20.5°.
• September 2105: +26.7°, the solstice.

At 13° the Sun is low enough to give the rings strong contrast and a long shadow on the planet physics.

From the Gateway

The Gateway orbits 613,000 km outside the A ring, tilted 15° to the ring plane design. From its northernmost point the rings open 15° toward the camera and span 21° of sky physics. Saturn is 9.2° by 8.3°, about 18 full Moons across physics. From the hero position its disc is gibbous, at a phase angle of 38.8° physics.

The north face is the lit one, and the north face is the one the station sees. At the 2084 crossing the Sun lit the rings edge-on and they went dark, yet the tilted Gateway orbit still saw them open by up to 15° physics.

Titan is a small separate disc, 16.9′ wide, 84° from Saturn physics.

From Enceladus

Enceladus orbits 238,000 km from Saturn, inside the E ring and in the ring plane physics. From the station on the Saturn-facing side, the planet is about 28° across and the rings are edge-on physics: a razor line across the disc.

The station sits at 55° S, where the noon Sun is 22° up. The south pole is in darkness, with the Sun 13° below the horizon physics. The plumes rise out of the shadow into sunlight.

Key numbers

Sources

• NASA Saturn ring fact sheet
• NASA Saturn fact sheet
• JPL Horizons

Related pages

• Getting around the Saturn system
• Enceladus plumes and the ocean