Researchers have claimed that the size of Saturn's outermost ring is much bigger than originally thought. Astrophysicist Douglas Hamilton used infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to discover the Phoebe ring in 2009.

Phoebe can't be seen with the naked eye because of its dark color. Researchers used the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer NASA telescope to get a good view of Phoebe. Findings of the study have been published in the journal Nature. The scientists were able to see just how big it is.

Phoebe is 200 times as big across as Saturn. This study was also led by Hamilton and helped the researchers know that Phoebe is made up of small particles and grains of dust that are quite far apart. It is really amazing that the particles are so much apart that an agile spacecraft could probably traverse the ring without hitting any particles.

Study results may help researchers learn more about how the Saturn's system of rings evolved. Hamilton said that it is certainly the first time when they have been able to capture and map the entire image of the planet's ring.

"Most of these particles can last for millions to billions of years because there's so much space and so few particles, and they're moving so slowly that the collision rate is so slow", said Hamilton.

Anne Verbiscer of CalTech and Michael Skrutskie of University were other scientists who also identified the new size of the ring. They said that the estimated measurement of Phoebe ring is 270 times the size of Saturn. It is also 10 times bigger than E ring.