The sixth planet from the sun and the jewel of the solar system, Saturn is definitely an absolutely stunning world. Although the other gas giants in the solar system have ring systems, Saturn's is easily the most recognizable and beautiful. Using even a small telescope, you can easily see Saturn's rings. Through a telescope they appear solid, and it's not that surprising that it was once believed that the rings were indeed solid. The first astronomer to recognize that there was something different about Saturn was Galileo Galilei, who observed Saturn's rings through his small telescope. However, Galileo had no idea that what he saw was a ring system. Rather, Galileo believed that Saturn was accompanied by two large moons on either side. Half a century later, the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens built a telescope capable of showing the true nature of Saturn's rings. Huygens realized that the strange structure around Saturn was not two large moons as Galileo had thought, but was actually a ring around Saturn. As telescopes improved, astronomers began discovering that Saturn was not surrounded by a single ring. Rather, it was surrounded by a ring system containing many rings. Gaps were also discovered within Saturn's rings. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini was the first to discover such a division in Saturn's rings, which would later be called the Cassini Division. However, it was still a mystery of what the rings were composed of. A solution to this problem came in 1859, when the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell proposed that Saturn's rings were composed of countless small fragments, like rocks, snowballs, and larger bodies. Despite the success of this model, astronomers were still surprised when the first spacecrafts to reach Saturn revealed that the rings were indeed composed of countless fragments. Some as small as dust grains, while others are as large as a house. (Second comment below 👇👇👇) - January 04, 2016 at 08:26AM Source: https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/e35/1173002_416660171874032_1049106462_n.jpg #nasa #space #iss #isro #mars #marsorbiter #outerspace #lightyears #milkyway #universe #galaxy #stars #sun #moon #saturn #jupiter #stumble #stumblespace

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