Is this Saturn simulator free?

Yes. It runs free in your web browser on WebGL 2, with no install, no account and no ads. On a slower device it draws fewer ring particles to keep the motion smooth.

The ring radii and gaps are Saturn's real ones, and every particle follows its own orbit, faster close in and slower farther out. The spiral waves, the wavy edges of the Encke gap and the dark spokes are drawn to look like Cassini's photographs, not computed from physics.

Can I see Saturn tonight?

The Saturn tonight page in our sky guide shows where and when to look from your location, and What's in my sky tonight lists everything bright that's up.

Where's the full version?

The Everdust app has many more live worlds of space and physics. It is free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, on Google Play for Android and on the Meta Horizon Store for Meta Quest.

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Planets & Moons

Saturn's rings, simulated

Saturn with its rings at their real proportions, the Cassini Division and smaller gaps, the planet's shadow across the rings and its hexagon at the north pole, seen on a slow pass like the Cassini probe's.

Drag to turn it, pinch or scroll to zoom, double-tap to reset.

The idea: Real ring radii (the C, B, A and F rings, the Cassini Division and the Encke and Keeler gaps), with each ring particle on its own orbit, so the inner rings lap the outer ones. The spiral waves, wavy gap edges and dark spokes are drawn to look like Cassini's photographs rather than computed.
With music: Mids set how fast the rings orbit; kicks bring out dark spokes; vocals brighten the rings. Tap Demo beat for our own beat, or Your music to let it hear the room.
How it runs: It’s the same live simulation as in the Everdust apps, running in your browser on WebGL 2. If your device struggles, it lowers the detail a step at a time to keep the motion smooth.

What are Saturn's rings made of?

Saturn's rings are billions of pieces of water ice, from grains smaller than sand to boulders as big as a house, each on its own orbit around the planet. They are enormous and astonishingly thin: the main rings span about 280,000 kilometers, while in most places they are only about ten meters thick.

Every piece obeys the same law as the planets around the Sun. The closer it is to Saturn, the faster it goes, so the inner rings overtake the outer ones. That is what you see here: the rings are not one spinning disk but countless orbits sliding past each other.

The gaps have causes. The Cassini Division, the dark band between the bright B ring and the A ring, sits where a ring particle would circle Saturn exactly twice for every orbit of the moon Mimas, and those repeated tugs clear it out. The Encke gap is swept clean by the tiny moon Pan, which orbits inside it.

The Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 and photographed waves, wakes and dark radial spokes in the rings. Nobody is sure how old the rings are; Cassini's measurements suggest they may be far younger than Saturn itself.

Questions

Is this Saturn simulator free?: Yes. It runs free in your web browser on WebGL 2, with no install, no account and no ads. On a slower device it draws fewer ring particles to keep the motion smooth.
How accurate is it?: The ring radii and gaps are Saturn's real ones, and every particle follows its own orbit, faster close in and slower farther out. The spiral waves, the wavy edges of the Encke gap and the dark spokes are drawn to look like Cassini's photographs, not computed from physics.
Can I see Saturn tonight?: The Saturn tonight page in our sky guide shows where and when to look from your location, and What's in my sky tonight lists everything bright that's up.
Where's the full version?: The Everdust app has many more live worlds of space and physics. It is free on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, on Google Play for Android and on the Meta Horizon Store for Meta Quest.

This is one world, in your browser

The full version is in the Everdust app.

The app has many more live worlds at full detail, games built on the same physics and narrated stories you step inside. It’s free to download, with no ads, on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro and Apple TV, on Google Play for Android phones and tablets, on the Meta Horizon Store for Meta Quest and from everdust.ai for Mac.