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WASHINGTON: Astronomers have discovered evidence that a long night, lasting from 6 to 14 hours, falls over Saturn’s rings.

However, once approximately every 15 years, night falls over the entire visible ring system for about four days. This happens during Saturn's equinox, when the sun is directly over Saturn’s equator.

“The equinox is a very special geometry, where the sun is turned off as far as the rings themselves are concerned, and all energy comes from Saturn,’’ said Dr Michael Flasar of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

Although the rings are wide, they are only about 30 feet thick. They are made of particles that are mostly water-ice.

“At first glance, Saturn’s rings look broad and bland, but then we got close-up images from the Voyager flybys, and our reaction was: oh, my gosh, there’s structure everywhere what’s going on?’’ said Mr Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Researchers have discovered that while most of the ring particles are as small as dust and pebbles, there are a few chunks as big as mountains, and even some small moons several miles across embedded in the rings. — PTI

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