New Saturn ring is detected
12 April 2012
A ring of Saturn big enough to contain one billion earths but never before seen has been discovered by a space telescope.
It was detected for the first time because the Spitzer telescope at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Hawaii is infrared. An artist's impression of the ring, with a view of Saturn inset, shows it starts about 3.7 million miles from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles.
It is about 50 times further out into space than Saturn's more familiar rings. "This is one supersized ring," said Dr Anne Verbiscer, who led the research.
