New ring discovered around Saturn |
New ring discovered around Saturn |
Oct 7 2009, 12:25 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
QUOTE The newly discovered ring spans from 128 to 207 times the radius of Saturn – or farther – and is 2.4 million kilometres thick. It was found using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which revealed an infrared glow thought to come from sun-warmed dust in a tenuous ring. The discovery was announced on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. "This is a unique planetary ring system, because it's the largest planetary ring in the solar system," team leader Anne Verbiscer of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville told the meeting. The source of the ring's material seems to be Saturn's far-flung moon Phoebe, which orbits the planet at an average distance of 215 times the radius of Saturn. When Phoebe is hit by wayward space rocks, the impacts could generate debris that fills the rings. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1792...und-saturn.html |
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Oct 12 2009, 09:08 PM
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
One idle thought led to another: I wondered if Cassini got whacked by any Phoebe ring particles as it passed through on its way in to SOI. Then I realized there's an instrument on Cassini designed to measure that, the CDA. Of course, that data's old enough that it's in the PDS. If I had time, I'd dig into it and see if I could understand or deal with the CDA data. I don't have time, though, so I just sent an email to the CDA team leader asking about it and hope I'll get a reply. But I thought I'd mention it here, just in case anybody else feels like attempting to dig into the PDS and see what CDA data looks like!
--Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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