YOU TRY IT! Put a Ring on It

You can build a scale model of Saturn and its rings.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. A large, clear glass bowl
2. Water
3. A spoon
4. A small sponge ball
5. Pepper

WHAT TO DO

1. Fill the bowl halfway with water.
2. Using the spoon, swirl the water around really fast until it’s spinning in the bowl.
3. Drop the ball into the center of the spinning water.
4. Sprinkle the pepper around the ball until it covers the surface of the water.
5. You have just made a working model of Saturn’s rings.

Can you see how all the particles swirl around the ball in the middle of the bowl? If you look closely, you can see that they move at different speeds: the ones close to the ball are moving faster than the ones farther away. That’s exactly what happens around a planet. The ring looks like it’s one solid piece, but all the little particles are moving on independent orbits.

Look through the side of the bowl. Notice how thin the rings are when you see them from the edge. They almost disappear when you look at them from the side. That’s what fooled Galileo.