Saturn's rings dark side mosaic
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Saturn's Ring Plane
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The B Ring is the second ring of Saturn discovered, and the third ring from Saturn. It is composed mostly of golf ball-sized and smaller ice particles, making it very reflective and bright, compared to all the other rings. It is much brighter than the C Ring and the A Ring, and is by far the widest of all the main rings. Because of its width and its depth of 5 to 15 km, it is also the heaviest ring.
Unlike the C Ring, which is very transparent, the B Ring blocks 91% of all light incident on it, reflecting most of it, allowing us to see it very easily.
Also unlike the C Ring, which has small scale structures inside the ring itself, the B Ring does not contain gaps, but only small ringlets within its structure. The unique feature of the B Ring, however, is the radial lines evident in the rings. These spokes, as they are referred to, are not from gravity, but from Saturn's magnetic field. If the spokes were due to gravity, they would remain in place, even as the planet rotated. But instead, they have a period the same as the magnetic field of Saturn, so we know that they are created by magnetism.
Dark Spokes in the B Ring
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Rotation of the Spokes
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