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This is a photograph of the edge of one of Saturn's rings, looking down from above. Those spiky dark shapes are shadows. Shadows of giant towers of ice and dust grains clumped together that rise up to three *kilometres* above the 10-m thick rings.

gin1902

@gin1902.bsky.social

Absolutely incredible. Did anybody think these were there before this photo?

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

I do not know. Certainly we (the royal we) understood that so-called ring shepherds cleared the empty paths in the rings (the "gaps") through gravitational interactions. But whether it was suspected that such clearing piled up ring material into giant towers along gap margins, I don't know.

30/9/26, 3:24 am0 reposts3 likes

gin1902

@gin1902.bsky.social

Everything about the rings is so interesting, but honestly, I'm regularly amazed at how thin they are. Thank you for all of your great posts!