Saturn Equinox Reveals Mountains in Rings

The fortuitous lighting of Saturn’s equinox has revealed the planet’s famously smooth, flat rings are actually corrugated.

During the days immediately after the August 11 equinox, the sun’s rays struck the rings at very low angles, bringing their topography into high-relief.

For scientists studying the rings, the event happening once every 15 years provided an unprecedentedly dimensional view of the rings.

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They were thought to be about 30 feet thick — and they are, generally speaking — but the Cassini spacecraft has revealed regions that are nearly two miles high.

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In the picture above, the ring mountains can be seen at the upper right casting a shadow on the gray ring to the right. They were pulled up out of the ring plane by the moon Daphnis.

From this article: Saturn Equinox Reveals Mountains in Rings

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I wonder what this "mountian range" is made of? Is it just large rocks/asteroids stuck in Saturn's orbit? The rings od Saturn have always fascinated me, imagine seeing the collision that slung all of that debris into orbit!

-E-

Wow thanks for sharing this!

Now that is some amazing photography for sure.

I think a space mission to study these rings more closely is in order, so that we can answer our many questions about these "anomalies" that are only now being discovered.

It is discoveries like this that remind me we humans know almost nothing about our very immediate surroundings. We have no choice but to look closer at these things now, because the real mysteries are only beginning to become apparent.


I would LOVE to know what these things look like up close. And what the heck the "mountain ranges" look like up close. It would blow me away, thats for sure.

We need to send a probe to study it right away!

reply to post by MysterE


Very interesting! I wonder what the rings of Saturn or any other ringed planet would look like from the surface of the planet? Would make for a wild looking sky!

reply to post by muzzleflash


No kidding, I wish we could get some up close and personal pics too. There is so much just in our solar system that blows me away. Am I being too greedy to want all of the mysterEs of the universe to be solved in my lifetime? jk

reply to post by gemineye


I'm with you, imagine the sunlight bouncing off the rings as the sun sets...

-E-

This is about as up-close and personal as it gets for now.


saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

Hi, Saturn fans.

Here are sites I visit almost every days.

CASSINI_SATURN:
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

Mars Explor Rovers Mission:
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

and once in a while. . .:
NASA Phoenix
www.nasa.gov...

Blue skies.

reply to post by Pauligirl


reply to post by C-JEAN



Thanks for the links!!!

-E-

Here's an animation showing how the moon Daphnis creates waves in the rings.


Future extreme sport? Ring surfing.

[edit on 9/22/2009 by Phage]

If I'm not mistaken its the elevation is cause by one of Saturn's moons that is close enough for its gravity to pull a section of the ring up, creating a "wave" effect. I believe they showed it on one of the new episodes of the universe on History Channel.

Originally posted by gemineye
Very interesting! I wonder what the rings of Saturn or any other ringed planet would look like from the surface of the planet? Would make for a wild looking sky!

Am I right in thinking that for any planet to have rings it would have to have serious amounts of gravity? It's only the truly massive planets that can capture enough material to form the rings (I think)

So you could send some probes - But human eyes would never be able to see them ....

HOAX!

NASA Photochoppers with a flick of the wrist hit the 'emboss effect' button.

simple as that. Phage will back me up on this.






just kiddin .. thanks for sharing.. so cool!

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