"It is clear that the small moons not only sculpt the rings through their gravity, but are also the parents of the ring material," said Esposito. "In each ring system, destructive processes like ...

This graphic shows the ring moons inspected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in super-close flybys. The rings and moons depicted are not to scale. NASA-JPL/Caltech The Cassini probe finally said goodbye ...

Planetary rings are disks containing many small chunks of ice and other materials that are in orbit around a larger object 1. Most rings are found within a critical distance of their host, known as ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Saturn’s iconic ...

"Although the individual rings and moons we now see are ephemeral, the phenomenon persists for billions of years around Saturn," said Esposito. "Previous calculations ignored the collective effects of ...