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Disappointingly, the rings of Saturn don't bear exotic, romantic, or even difficult-to-pronounce scientific names. After some deep-web exploration, we learned that the rings are simply referred to by letters of the alphabet. Saturn's rings were first noted in 1610 by Galileo. They were named in the order of their discovery and hence do not appear in alphabetical order. Working outward from the planet, the rings are: D, C, B, A, F, G, E. The large division between rings B and A is called the Cassini Division after the astronomer who discovered both the gap and four of
Saturn's moons. D, C, B, and A are the major ring groups; F, G, and E are fainter, narrower rings. The rings are composed primarily of particles of water ice, ranging in size from a fraction of a millimeter in diameter to several meters. Voyagers 1 and 2 explored the rings in 1980 and 1981, taking numerous photos. The next scheduled mission to Saturn is Cassini, which should arrive at Saturn in 2004 and includes a planned probe of Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons. Saturn was the first planet observed to have rings. It wasn't until 1977 that it was discovered that Uranus
also had rings. Later the rings of Jupiter and Neptune were also observed. And if the names of Saturn's rings are rather bland, at least they're easy to spell.
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