Maxwell showed in 1856 that Saturn's rings couldn't be a single solid, since Saturn's own gravity would break it up. Were Saturn's rings assembled into a single body, it would measure less than 100 kilometers across. The origin of Saturn's rings , and of unusual radial patterns that appear on them called spokes , are still unknown. The above representative-color picture was taken from Earth in infrared light. A robot spacecraft Cassini launched in 1997 will reach Saturn in 2004.
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