what is saturn's composition and appearance
Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, is one of four “gas giants.” It is easily recognized by its set of rings. The rings were originally discovered by Galileo in 1610, although he did not know what he was looking at and instead described Saturn ashaving “ears.” Saturn’srings are made mostly ofice and rock.
In pictures, Saturn's rings look a lot like the solar system's largest parking lot - a wide, flat surface almost as wide as the distance between the Earth and Moon. That's a lot of empty parking spaces. Why not just park a spacecraft there to study Saturn and its moons? Image to right: Saturn's rings only look solid. They are actually masses of debris forced by gravity into tight rings. Credit: NASA. Truth is, the rings only look solid. They are really a jumbled mess made up of millions and millions of pieces of ice and rock, ranging in size from tiny grains of dust to chunks bigger than a house.