Saturn's Braided Rings
1980 AD
1980 1980

NAT

SATURN ORBIT
	Scientists discovered centuries ago that the planet Saturn was circled by a ring, but little did they expect how many rings there were, or how strange some of those beautiful rings would turn out to be upon close examination.
	In November 1980, the spacecraft Voyager 1 flew by Saturn and discovered that it has at least seven separate ring systems. Unexpectedly, it found that some of them were intertwined or "braided."
	These rings, which may have been formed when the planet itself was formed or could have been created when an ancient moon strayed too close to Saturn's gravity and was ripped apart, are made of ice and dust fragments as small as sand or as large as a small house. The larger pieces tend to collide with one another and break into ever smaller pieces.
	Whatever their origin, the discovery of braided rings around Saturn is a good illustration of how close examination often shows us how much more complex our physical world is than our initial observations would lead us to believe.