Unprecedented Discoveries: Saturn's Rings Reveal Surprising Phenomena.

Saturn's rings are heating its upper atmosphere, causing an excess of ultraviolet radiation that has never been seen before in our solar system. The phenomenon was discovered using observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, retired Cassini probe, Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, and the retired International Ultraviolet Explorer mission. The heating is likely caused by icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn's atmosphere due to the planet's gravitational field. The discovery could potentially help predict if planets around other stars have Saturn-like ring systems.