Author Topic: Saturn has 8 rings... (Read 5091 times)

makattak · « **on:** October 07, 2009, 01:07:00 AM »

Not seven as was previously thought.

And the eighth is MASSIVE.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561500,00.html

Quote

PASADENA, Calif. — The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday.

The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said.

JPL spokeswoman Whitney Clavin said the ring is very diffuse and doesn't reflect much visible light but the infrared Spitzer telescope was able to detect it.

Although the ring dust is very cold — minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit — it shines with thermal radiation.

No one had looked at its location with an infrared instrument until now, Clavin said.

The bulk of the ring material starts about 3.7 million miles from the planet and extends outward about another 7.4 million miles.

The newly found ring is so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it, JPL said.

Before the discovery Saturn was known to have seven main rings named A through E and several faint unnamed rings.

A paper on the discovery was to be published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.

"This is one supersized ring," said one of the authors, Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Her co-authors are Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park, and Michael Skrutskie, also of the University of Virginia.

Saturn's moon Phoebe orbits within the ring and is believed to be the source of the material.

The ring also may answer the riddle of another moon, Iapetus, which has a bright side and a very dark side.

The ring circles in the same direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus, the other rings and most of Saturn's other moons go the opposite way. Scientists think material from the outer ring moves inward and slams into Iapetus.

"Astronomers have long suspected that there is a connection between Saturn's outer moon Phoebe and the dark material on Iapetus," said Hamilton. "This new ring provides convincing evidence of that relationship."

The Spitzer mission, launched in 2003, is managed by JPL in Pasadena. Spitzer is 66 million miles from Earth in orbit around the sun.

Don't have much to say other than, Wow, the things we can do.

Phyphor · « **Reply #1 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:15:56 AM »

Yea, and the way we can pick out smaller and smaller worlds in other star systems? Hell yea. If there is life out there, we'll probably find it.... if it's close enough..... this is just one small step towards that goal.

Fly320s · « **Reply #2 on:** October 07, 2009, 07:58:56 AM »

Quote

The bulk of the ring material starts about 3.7 million miles from the planet

And it is in orbit around Saturn? That's amazing.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 07, 2009, 08:45:00 AM »

Insert "Rings around Uranus" jokes here.

Regolith · « **Reply #4 on:** October 07, 2009, 09:22:27 AM »

Quote from: Gewehr98 on October 07, 2009, 08:45:00 AM

Insert "Rings around Uranus" jokes here.

taurusowner · « **Reply #5 on:** October 07, 2009, 10:04:29 AM »

Very appropriate Regolith. Bravo.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 07, 2009, 10:11:45 AM »

Quote from: makattak on October 07, 2009, 01:07:00 AM

Don't have much to say other than, Wow, the things we can do.

Yeah, and considering that we have barely made it off our own planet, it is pretty cool what we can find just sitting here and looking.

roo_ster · « **Reply #7 on:** October 07, 2009, 12:19:10 PM »

Yep, and there is so much sky to et a bead on with our sensors, we can expect discoveries like this in perpetuity. Just have to get better & better sensors to focus on different bits of sky at different times.

taurusowner · « **Reply #8 on:** October 07, 2009, 01:02:31 PM »

Just think what we would find if we actually tried to something other than just sit here on Earth.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #9 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:05:44 PM »

robots in space > people in space

makattak · « **Reply #10 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:14:03 PM »

Quote from: Harold Tuttle on October 07, 2009, 02:05:44 PM

robots in space > people in space

That really depends on the people....

Ohhhhhhhh are you meaning for purposes of exploration and discovery? Yeah, most likely.

AJ Dual · « **Reply #11 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:54:36 PM »

People that are robots in space > robots in space > people in space...

Since I've got a bit of a reputation here as a Kurzweilian transhumanist, I couldn't resist.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #12 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:56:52 PM »

shipping water & air out of the gravity well is too darn expensive

telepresence is where we should roam while re-pushing at the x-15 envelope

AJ Dual · « **Reply #13 on:** October 07, 2009, 03:16:30 PM »

Saturn has eight rings?

Well, there are FOUR lights!

Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas · « **Reply #14 on:** October 07, 2009, 03:28:20 PM »

Quote from: AJ Dual on October 07, 2009, 03:16:30 PM

Saturn has eight rings?

Well, there are FOUR lights!

Why isn't the good captain wearing pants?

makattak · « **Reply #15 on:** October 07, 2009, 03:29:26 PM »

Quote from: Fistful Savalas on October 07, 2009, 03:28:20 PM

Why isn't the good captain wearing pants?

Prisoner of war being tortured...

Hey, at least I can't tell you Episode number, Title and date first aired!

erictank · « **Reply #16 on:** October 07, 2009, 11:13:57 PM »

Quote from: makattak on October 07, 2009, 03:29:26 PM

Prisoner of war being tortured...

Hey, at least I can't tell you Episode number, Title and date first aired!

I'm SO tempted...

But I'd have to look it up myself. Funny, seeing as how this was one of the episodes Stewart talked about at DragonCon last month as one of his favorites of the TNG run, and he did in fact mention it by name (though he did need a prompt, IIRC). Excellent episode, though.

Quote from: Harold Tuttle on October 07, 2009, 02:05:44 PM

robots in space > people in space

I disagree. AFAIC, robots in space + people in space.

http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2009/07/space-quotes.html

Plus: "Manned spaceflight versus robotics? Let's see ... on your wedding night, would you be satisfied to send in a remote, and receive telemetered progress reports? " - author L. Neil Smith

For a variety of reasons, including "Because it's THERE!!!", I hope that humanity as a species never agrees with you, Harry.