Saturn's Rings Are Only 30 Feet Thick Despite Being 175,000 Miles Wide

Saturn's rings are perhaps the most photographed feature in the solar system, but few people realize how absurdly thin they are. They span 282,000 km from edge to edge — wider than 22 Earths in a row — yet their average thickness is only about 10 meters.

If you scaled the rings down to fit on a sheet of paper, the rings would be approximately 10,000 times thinner than the paper itself.

What Are They Made Of?

The rings consist of trillions of icy particles — from microscopic dust grains to chunks the size of houses — orbiting Saturn at high speed. They are 99.9% pure water ice, which makes them extraordinarily reflective and bright.

How Old Are They?

Cassini probe data revealed something stunning: Saturn's rings may be only 10 to 100 million years old — meaning they did not exist when dinosaurs walked the Earth. They are also slowly raining down onto Saturn, and may be gone in another 100 million years.

Other Solar System Rings

• Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, but they are faint compared to Saturn's
• The asteroid Chariklo became the first non-planet known to have rings
• Some scientists believe Earth had rings briefly, after a major asteroid impact 466 million years ago