These particles move along magnetic-field lines but are absorbed by satellites and ring particles. The charged particles that impinge on the ionosphere create airglow emissions. Saturn's mass, unlike that of the Sun, was not large enough to initiate the fusion process, and Saturn, unlike Jupiter, did not give off enough excessive heat to drive out water from the inner satellites. The classical designations for the rings are based on the gross ring components identified from the ground, but the Voyager spacecraft have shown the ring system to be highly structured. The radial particle-density distribution changes over distances of hundreds of meters, but individual particles, whose estimated sizes range from tens to hundreds of centimeters, have not been resolved.
Spectroscopy shows the presence of water ice, which probably covers rocky silicate cores.
The dynamics of the rings are not presently well understood. Voyager showed eccentric ringlets and asymmetrical kinks in some ringlets. The kinks in the F ring gave it a braided appearance, but despite the proximity of two small satellites, the kinks do not seem directly related to them. Voyager also showed irregular spokelike features in the B ring that are composed of very small, strongly back-scattering particles temporarily out of the ring plane. Because of the detection of electrostatic discharges from the rings at radio wavelengths, these particles are thought to be electrically charged and thus forced out of the ring plane by Saturn's magnetic field.