Largest ring discovered around Saturn

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered a new ring which is larger than the other previously known rings around Saturn. It has never been discovered before because it is made up of dust and ice particles that are so far apart - if you were in the middle of the ring, you wouldn't know it, according to NASA. Spitzer was able to sense the dust since cool objects glow in infrared or thermal radiation.

The edge of the ring closest to Saturn is about 3.7 million miles from the planet. It is about 7.4 million miles wide and about 20 times as thick as the diameter of Saturn. It lies on a 27-degree angle from the planet and could hold about 1 billion Earths.

Here's a look:

And here's the size of the ring compared to Saturn...

The moon Iapetus, recently renamed Cassini Regio, was discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Cassini who later found that the the moon has a dark side.

More: Gallery: Largest ring discovered around Saturn

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com