In December 2018, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) estimated that Saturn’s rings also disappearing at an accelerated rate. In fact, they are raining down particles that could fill an olympic-sized pool every 30 minutes.

116,460 km

Summary: New analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft found that electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn’s moons, spark the auroras and heat the planet’s upper atmosphere.

Answer: Saturn’s rings are made up of millions of pieces of rock and dust. The gravity of Saturn holds it all in place but there are some moons that go around Saturn (just like our Moon), called shepherd moons that help to keep the rings in place.

While they look like giant discs, they’re not a solid track at all. Instead, they’re made of millions of chunks of ice, some as tiny as dust particles, others as large as buses. But if you were able to hike on one of Saturn’s outermost rings, you’ll walk about 12 million kilometers to make it around the longest one.

The Cassini Division is the largest gap in the rings and separates the B ring from the A ring. Just outside the A ring is the narrow F ring, shepherded by tiny moons, Pandora and Prometheus. Beyond that are two much fainter rings named G and E.

Neptune possesses five distinct rings named, in order of increasing distance from the planet, Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago and Adams.

Pioneer 11 was a big shot in the dark for NASA, with the probe visiting not one, but two planets on its cruise outwards from Earth. It also was an illustration of spacecraft longevity, as the probe was still transmitting information as late as 1995 — more than two decades after it launched.