Saturn's Rings Heat Up Atmosphere, Hubble Discovers.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, along with other space missions, has discovered that Saturn's vast ring system is heating the giant planet's upper atmosphere, causing an excess of ultraviolet radiation. The most feasible explanation is that icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn's atmosphere cause this heating. This unexpected interaction between Saturn and its rings could provide a tool for predicting if planets around other stars have Saturn-like ring systems.