Saturn's Rings on the Eve of the CASSINI Mission

Saturn's vast and beautiful ring system is a marvelous dynamical
laboratory, rich with unsolved puzzles about its age, origin, and orbital
properties. A six-year survey of Saturn and its rings from the Hubble
Space Telescope has revealed new twists about the rings and it small
attendant moons, and Arecibo radar observations of the rings have shown
surprises as well. These results will set the stage for a comprehensive
multiwavelength investigation of the Saturn system during the four-year
orbital tour of the Cassini spacecraft, set to begin in July 2004.