At such times some of the larger moons would usually be seen shining by the reflected light of the far distant sun. Saturn also would be visible as a magnificent star, but beautiful Venus and ruddy Mars would fail to appear. Tiny bodies, mere specks of light at this distance, they would be lost to view in the glare of the sun. XX THE RINGS AND MOONS OF SATURN Nearly everyone has felt at some time or other a strong desire to gaze at some of the beauties and wonders of the heavens through a telescope and the one object that all of us wish to see, if, perchance, this desire is to be gratified is Saturn, whose unusual ring system has, so far as we know, no counterpart in the sky. All the planets in the solar system with the exception of the two innermost, Mercury and Venus, are attended by satellites, but Saturn, alone, has in addition to a family of nine moons, three distinct rings of great dimensions which are composed of swarms of minute particles revolving around the planet. Why Saturn should be the only planet to possess such a system of rings has never been explained in an entirely satisfactory manner. There is an interesting law known as "Roche's Law," however, named from its investigator, that states that no satellite of a planet can exist intact with 2.44 times the radius of the planet. This limit is spoken of as "Roche's Limit" and applying it to the planet Saturn we find that the rings of Saturn fall within this limit. It does not necessarily follow from this that the minute particles of which the rings are composed are the shattered remains of one small satellite, but rather that they are the material from which a satellite might have been formed were it not so close to the planet. Within "Roche's Limit" the mutual attraction of the various particles for each other that would tend eventually to gather them into one body is overcome by tidal forces that arise from such close proximity to the huge planet. The stress and strain of such forces is so great that no grouping of particles can take place. This explains, possibly, why the rings continue to exist in their present condition. The total quantity of matter in the rings is known to be very small, for it does not disturb the motions of any of the nearer and smaller satellites, though tiny Mimas, six hundred miles in diameter, is only thirty-one thousand miles beyond the outer edge of the outer ring.