Undertoad Saturday Jul 3 01:51 PM7/3/2004: Rings of Saturn
Elspode points out the beautiful Saturn rings images sent
back by Cassini. This large IotD is warranted by the fact
that it has almost no color and so compressed down very
nicely, viewable for modem users.
The full story says maybe the rings are a broken-up moon,
and maybe there was a recent collision between the rings and
something with oxygen:
Quote:
One early result intriguing scientists concerns Saturn's Cassini
Division, the large gap between the A and B rings. While Saturn's
rings are almost exclusively composed of water ice, new findings show
the Cassini Division contains relatively more "dirt" than ice. Further,
the particles between the rings seem remarkably similar to the dark
material that scientists saw on Saturn's moon, Phoebe. These dark
particles refuel the theory that the rings might be the remnants of a
moon. The F ring was also found to contain more dirt.
Another instrument on Cassini has detected large quantities of oxygen at
the edge of the rings. Scientists are still trying to understand these results,
but they think the oxygen may be left over from a collision that occurred as
recently as January of this year.
"In just two days, our ideas about the rings have been expanded
tremendously," said Dr. Linda Spilker, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., deputy project scientist for the Cassini-Huygens
mission. "The Phoebe-like material is a big surprise. What puzzles us
is that the A and B rings are so clean and the Cassini Division between
them appears so dirty."
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xoxoxoBruce Saturday Jul 3 03:12 PM
Quote:
rings are almost exclusively composed of water ice
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Seems to me, that would be the likely source of the oxygen they detected at the edge.
lookout123 Saturday Jul 3 05:13 PMsaturn, schmaturn - that's my mother's dinner plate magnified.
Elspode Saturday Jul 3 06:41 PMRather looks like the Warner Brothers shield to me...
xoxoxoBruce Saturday Jul 3 10:56 PMYour going to have to explain that one to me, Els?????
Nothing But Net Saturday Jul 3 11:06 PMI'm particularly unimpressed.
Stuff from the Hubble puts this to shame.
xoxoxoBruce Saturday Jul 3 11:57 PMBut the Hubble (genuflect) doesn't give us that little bitty detail or oxygen readings and wind details.
Nothing But Net Sunday Jul 4 12:44 AMCool pic ... <b>bruce</b>!!!
How would you like to surf the wave on Saturn's ring?
wolf Sunday Jul 4 02:51 AMI remember many years ago sitting in an auditorium at my college waiting as the live pics were coming in from V-ger ... amazing stuff. This brought back the moment.
Thanks.
Beestie Sunday Jul 4 03:00 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by wolf I remember many years ago sitting in an auditorium at my college waiting as the live pics were coming in from V-ger ... amazing stuff. This brought back the moment.
Thanks.
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Very cool. I heard something interesting about Voyager the other day. Apparently, at its present speed (it recently sped past the outer orbit of Pluto) it will not be completely free of the Sun's gravity for.....
take a wild guess
....
forty-four thousand years. Whoa. The furthest reach of the Sun's gravity is one definition of the edge of the Solar System (Pluto's orbit being another).
wolf Sunday Jul 4 03:16 AMIt better hurry up and fall in that wormhole soon, then ...
Elspode Sunday Jul 4 11:24 AMAh...I'm a moron. I referenced incorrectly:
Nothing But Net Sunday Jul 4 02:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beestie
The furthest reach of the Sun's gravity is one definition of the edge of the Solar System (Pluto's orbit being another).
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Or Sedna?
YellowBolt Monday Jul 5 06:31 PMSedna is overrated.
I want to see nice and sexy COLOR pictures soon.
Yellow #5 Tuesday Jul 6 10:36 AMThat is a seriously dusty CD, and there is a pretty nasty pit and a scratch in track 7.
Slothboy Tuesday Jul 6 12:25 PM"That's no Moon..."
/Obligatory
xoxoxoBruce Tuesday Jul 6 06:29 PMWelcome to the cCellar, Yellow #5. You have to admit it's in pretty good shape for being billions of years old.
Yellow #5 Wednesday Jul 7 10:28 AMThanks.
That's true. Anyway, it's probably only a pirate copy of that LP sent on the Voyager probes anyway.
Catwoman Wednesday Jul 7 10:59 AMI just can't believe a major planet has insouciently ripped off our treasured Looney Tunes logo. Honestly, it's taking plagiarism that one step too far.
Bitman Friday Jul 9 04:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beestie
.. Voyager .. will not be completely free of the Sun's gravity ..
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I don't understand that .. gravity travels forever, just like light. So Vger will never be truly "free" of our Sun's gravity. What will really happen in 44 Kyears?
chrisinhouston Friday Jul 9 05:06 PMWow, they come in many colors!
jaguar Friday Jul 9 05:51 PMWon't it just end up being more affected by something else out there?
Your reply here?
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