Facts about Saturn's Cassini Division
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Named after astronomer Giovanni Cassini, the Cassini Division was long thought to be an empty void but was later confirmed to contain diffuse ring material and dust.
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Orbital resonances between the Cassini Division and Saturn's moon Mimas occur at specific ratios, with particles in the gap completing exactly two orbits for every one orbit of Mimas, creating gravitational exclusion zones.
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Spectroscopic analysis from the Cassini spacecraft revealed that the Cassini Division contains significantly less water ice than Saturn's main rings, suggesting the gap was cleared by collisional processes over millions of years.
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Radar observations from the Cassini spacecraft during 2004-2017 detected spokes of charged dust extending radially across Saturn's Cassini Division, likely caused by ultraviolet radiation ionizing ring particles.
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At roughly 4,700 kilometers wide, Saturn's Cassini Division contains enough space for Earth to fit inside with 1,000 kilometers to spare on either side.
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In 1981, Voyager 2 revealed that Saturn's Cassini Division contains a faint ringlet nicknamed the Cassini Division ringlet, composed primarily of ice particles smaller than one centimeter.
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Particles within Saturn's Cassini Division orbit at different speeds depending on their distance from Saturn, causing ring material to gradually spread outward at approximately one centimeter per year.
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Gravitational interactions with Saturn's moons Prometheus and Pandora create density waves in the Cassini Division that travel at speeds exceeding 20 kilometers per hour.
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The 4,700-kilometer-wide gap between Saturn's A and B rings, discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1675, contains thousands of moonlets.