About this expedition
What is it like to fly through Saturn’s rings?
Cruise the ring plane of Saturn in an imagined probe, with NASA’s Cassini spacecraft — a real NASA 3D model — flying alongside. Ice boulders tumble past, the bright B ring and the dark Cassini Division curve around the golden planet, and a small shepherd moon herds the ring edge.
Saturn’s main rings are made of countless pieces of water ice, from dust-sized grains to boulders several metres across. Together they span about 270,000 km — roughly 70% of the distance from Earth to the Moon — yet they are often only tens of metres thick. The widest gap, the Cassini Division, is about 4,800 km across. Cassini orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 and ended its mission with 22 dives between the rings and the planet.
Quick facts
- Gravity
- 10.44 m/s² — slightly more than Earth’s
- Main-ring span
- About 270,000 km across
- Ring thickness
- Often only tens of metres
- Ring material
- Mostly water ice
- Length of a day
- About 10.7 hours
- Cassini mission
- In orbit 2004–2017
Five discoveries to find
- The ring approach — the B ring, C ring and Cassini Division from above.
- A chunk of ring ice — a tumbling ice boulder in the specimen viewer.
- The great division — inside the Cassini Division, a gap that is not quite empty.
- The shepherd moonlet — a small moon that keeps ring edges sharp.
- The propeller — the S-shaped wake of a moonlet too small to clear a gap.
How to explore
Press Begin the cruise. The probe cruises forward on its own; W A S D drift sideways, Space rises and C sinks below the ring sheet. Drag to look around; on phones and tablets a touch pad appears. Press G to compare the local gravity with Earth’s, P for photo mode, and E to record a discovery in your journal — progress is saved on your own device.
Science and artistic reconstruction
Ring composition, structure and the Cassini model are based on NASA science and 3D Resources, and the Saturn globe uses a real planet texture. The band layout, the propeller and the moonlet are artistic reconstructions, not survey data.
Keep exploring
关于本次探索
穿越土星环是什么感觉？
以一艘虚构探测器的身份在土星环平面上巡航，NASA 的卡西尼号（真实三维模型）并肩飞行。冰块翻滚着掠过，明亮的 B 环和暗色的卡西尼环缝绕着这颗金色行星弯曲，一颗小小的牧羊卫星正在约束环的边缘。
土星的主环由无数水冰颗粒组成，从尘粒到数米宽的巨砾不等。整个环系宽约 27 万公里（约为地月距离的七成），但厚度往往只有几十米。最宽的缝隙卡西尼环缝约 4,800 公里宽。卡西尼号 2004 至 2017 年环绕土星，任务末期进行了多次穿越环与行星之间缝隙的俯冲。
快速数据
- 引力
- 10.44 m/s²，略高于地球
- 主环跨度
- 约 27 万公里
- 环的厚度
- 往往只有几十米
- 环的成分
- 主要是水冰
- 自转周期
- 约 10.7 小时
- 卡西尼号任务
- 2004–2017 年环绕土星
五个发现
- 环面远眺 — 从高处看 B 环、C 环和卡西尼环缝。
- 环冰的一块 — 标本查看器中翻滚的冰块。
- 巨大的缝隙 — 卡西尼环缝内，并非真正空无一物。
- 牧羊小卫星 — 让环边缘保持锐利的小卫星。
- 螺旋桨 — 太小而无法清出完整缝隙的小卫星留下的 S 形涟漪。
如何探索
点击“开始巡航”。探测器会自行向前；W A S D 横向漂移，空格上升，C 下沉至环面之下。拖动鼠标环顾四周。
科学与艺术重建
环的成分、结构与卡西尼号模型基于 NASA 资料和三维模型库；土星本体使用真实行星贴图。环带布局、螺旋桨和小卫星是艺术重建，并非测量数据。