Exploring the Rings Options

[Bill Harris]

This might be a way for an orbiter to move closer to the ring plane without crossing the ring plane:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/...00726094749.htm

"The late Dr Forward -- a renowned physicist who worked in the United States and from his second home in Scotland -- believed it was possible to use 'displaced orbits' to deploy more satellites to the north or south of the Earth's equator, helping to meet the growing demand for communications."

--Bill

[ZLD]

I'm not aware of any detected meteors with Saturn either. It does seem like it would be a relatively common occurrence but I don't think Cassini would be able to pick up the flashes easily. If it were able to take a fast paced video, it would be more likely but the duration of the flashes would be so quick that a photo would likely be shear luck if even possible. As Frank said above, most particles are going to be tiny and many wouldn't cause a flash at all and those that did would be relatively dim. Now if one of the inner moons decided to kamakaze inward, well that'd be something pretty damn spectacular!