Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn

Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn

edition.cnn.com

Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.

(visit the link for the full news article)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/cdfc422cd070a21d.png[/atsimg]

[edit on 7/10/2009 by serbsta]

Source: The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).

Looks like we're still discovering new things in our own solar system. Fascinating stuff!


edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by serbsta


Impressive, and also interesting the way they have been able to spot it: thanks for sharing
The original press release can be found here:
NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

An artist's concept of the newfound ring is online at www.nasa.gov...
There you can find some hi-res version of this concept:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/cdfc422cd070a21d.png[/atsimg]

This artist's conception simulates an infrared view of the giant ring. Saturn appears as just a small dot from outside the band of ice and dust. The bulk of the ring material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). The ring's diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side.
The inset shows an enlarged image of Saturn, as seen by the W.M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in infrared light. The ring, stars and wispy clouds are an artist's representation.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Keck


Another interesting facet is that according to them

The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn's moons. Iapetus has a strange appearance — one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang symbol. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini first spotted the moon in 1671, and years later figured out it has a dark side, now named Cassini Regio in his honor. A stunning picture of Iapetus taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft is online at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

I find Iapetus to be by far the most intriguing Saturn's Moon: while i'd like to see some explanation about its extremely odd two-tones appearance, in the other hand i would hope that it will remain some mystery, as well as its equatorial ridge and its northern pole's unusual dip

www.spitzer.caltech.edu...
www.nasa.gov...


[edit on 7/10/2009 by internos]

Nice images Internos I have never seen the one of Iapetus before, looks like something from the discount line in planetary models, you can really see the joins

Very interesting ... thanks!

Berth

This just reinforces why I love space... especially our own Solar System! Great thread!

IRM

reply to post by internos


Cheers for the insight internos.

I've upped your image, which i also saw on CNN into the OP.

"In fact, it seems to be getting much closer to Earth. A specific section of the ring seems to be bulging out directly towards the planet."


What could this invisible to the eye ring's effect on living beings or the planet be, exactly?

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
"In fact, it seems to be getting much closer to Earth. A specific section of the ring seems to be bulging out directly towards the planet."


What could this invisible to the eye ring's effect on living beings or the planet be, exactly?

Death of some sort, It is made of solid matter same as any of the other rings

Doubt death, seems most of the particles are fairly small.



I'll admit, when I first saw the thread title, I was expecting something less than serious.
I was pleasantly surprised, though.

Great Find! Star & Flag!
It's amazing what we are seeing in IR now. I am curious why they only have an artists representation of this newly discovered ring ? Our own solar system still has much to reveal to us.

Synth

David Wilcock reveals many new planet phenomena may be related

thanks to DimensionalDetective

over in this thread for part 1 to 11
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Kinda' funny when you think about it.
I've seen the videos regarding the Casini probe.
Man, they calculated and calculated until they figured out how to escape those "rings of death" with a probe and get it into, and then out of, Saturn's debris field.

And now we have this. Another ring, many, many times larger than all the others combined. And it is tilted 20 some odd degrees from the others.

I guess they lucked around this ENORMOUS variable in their calculations... twice, no less.

Or, they aren't being honest.
Take your pick.

Originally posted by JayinAR
now we have this. Another ring, many, many times larger than all the others combined. And it is tilted 20 some odd degrees from the others.

I guess they lucked around this ENORMOUS variable in their calculations... twice, no less.

Or, they aren't being honest.
Take your pick.

Interesting points JayinAR. Perhaps the angle and distance didn't interfere with the trajectory and thus negated any need for further calculations?

What created it though? A pulverized moon? On second thoughts...better not go there, the Nibiru freaks will be all over it in a second

IRM

[edit on 7/10/09 by InfaRedMan]

reply to post by InfaRedMan


I'm not sure. All I'm saying is that this new "ring" is on a tilt of 23 degrees offset to the others, which more or less hold an even plane across the planets equator.
In my mind's eye, this means that you actually have to double the tilt to arive at 46degrees worth of debris to avoid along the planet's equatorial axis. Because the probe has to both enter the debris field AND exit it, unscathed.

In one and out the other.
If you try to calculate an exit along the same plane as entry, you just conpoud the issue. At least in my eyes.
But then again, I'm not a scientist. I don't know for sure.

They considered the Casini probe a HUGE success because of the difficulties it faced along its way. This new information makes their initial assessments woefully inadequate when it comes to what we see now.

Before, they basically had to navigate linearly. With this new data, we see they actually had to calculate for inward pitch AND lateral distance, in order to drop behind the rings. And then navigate outward in like manner.

Like I said, they are either INCREDIBLY Lucky. Or they are lying somewhere along the way...

Oh yeah, once again, Obama is threatening to cut their funding.
They seem to be dropping new info left and right anymore. Perhaps if Obama keeps at them, they will spill the beans about something truly revolutionary.

Originally posted by Synthesist
Great Find! Star & Flag!
It's amazing what we are seeing in IR now. I am curious why they only have an artists representation of this newly discovered ring ?

That's the same question i posed to myself Actually, they do have actual images.
After some digging, i came to the conclusion that the artist's conception was the best way to illustrate the newly discovered ring, its size, its proportion once compared with Saturn itself: i've found an actual infrared image
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/511639532d293036.jpg[/atsimg]
And it doesn't make the point, as is:
then, there's also this diagram:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/ccbf6187db9edc50.jpg[/atsimg]
Original caption released with the image:

Infrared Ring Around Saturn
This diagram highlights a slice of Saturn's largest ring. The ring (red band in inset photo) was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected infrared light, or heat, from the dusty ring material. Spitzer viewed the ring edge-on from its Earth-trailing orbit around the sun.

The ring has a diameter equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side. And it's thick too -- about 20 Saturns could fit into its vertical height. The ring is tilted about 27 degrees from Saturn's main ring plane.

The Spitzer data were taken by its multiband imaging photometer and show infrared light with a wavelength of 24 microns.

The picture of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Source

High-Resolution (3000x2400) : JPEG (1.3 MB)

In my humble opinion, the artists's conception was released with the purpose of sharing some good visual description of the newly discovered ring

Truely amazing!! Spitzer continues to amaze me everytime. I found a video about the spitzer space telescope and our own galaxy thats worth a watch. It's dumbed down a bit but still pretty cool. It's about 5:25 min long.

Showcase: The Milky Way Big Picture - NASA Spitzer Space Telescope

Originally posted by internos
reply to post by serbsta

 

Impressive, and also interesting the way they have been able to spot it: thanks for sharing

The original press release can be found here:
NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

An artist's concept of the newfound ring is online at www.nasa.gov...
There you can find some hi-res version of this concept:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/cdfc422cd070a21d.png[/atsimg]

This artist's conception simulates an infrared view of the giant ring. Saturn appears as just a small dot from outside the band of ice and dust. The bulk of the ring material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). The ring's diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side.
The inset shows an enlarged image of Saturn, as seen by the W.M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in infrared light. The ring, stars and wispy clouds are an artist's representation.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Keck


Another interesting facet is that according to them

The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn's moons. Iapetus has a strange appearance — one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang symbol. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini first spotted the moon in 1671, and years later figured out it has a dark side, now named Cassini Regio in his honor. A stunning picture of Iapetus taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft is online at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

I find Iapetus to be by far the most intriguing Saturn's Moon: while i'd like to see some explanation about its extremely odd two-tones appearance, in the other hand i would hope that it will remain some mystery, as well as its equatorial ridge and its northern pole's unusual dip

www.spitzer.caltech.edu...
www.nasa.gov...


[edit on 7/10/2009 by internos]

[edit on 6-6-2010 by aethron]

Sometimes, things aren’t as black and white as they first seem…

Check this hi-res image of Iapetus:

www.esa.int...

The blurb states:
“In many places, the dark material - thought to be composed of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds called cyanides, hydrated minerals and other carbonaceous minerals - appears to coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors. The distribution of this material and variations in the color of the bright material across the trailing hemisphere will be crucial clues to understanding the origin of Iapetus' peculiar bright-dark dual personality.”

The thing is, if you look closely at the hi-res image, it is apparent that the white material is a coating of ice over a dark planetary surface rather than a coating of black material over an icy planet.

There are places where the ice has rifted to expose the dark material beneath, and the icy edges of the rifts complement each other’s line like jigsaw pieces.

If Iapetus was coated by dark material from an external source why would it only ‘coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors‘? Rather these are the surfaces most exposed to perpendicular rays from the sun and therefore most resistant to ice sheet formation. The frequency of dark areas decreases in higher latitudes because it’s colder towards the poles, and ice can more easily accumulate there.

Also, while there are plenty of dark patches on the light hemisphere but there are no light patches on the dark hemisphere. If the dark material was coating a white moon, any meteor impacts on the dark side would expose the underlying white material, but this is nowhere evident.

What do you think folks? Is Iapetus black on white or white on black?

Very cool find Serbsta, S&F.

Over the last couple of years we seem to be discovering all sorts of fantastic things in Space.

It's a great time we are living in for being into this stuff.

G.

reply to post by serbsta


I just have to say this. If somebody else were to bring this to ATS, you would be one of the first to denounce it as a hoax. CNN and NASA are well-known for their lies and disinformation.

"The particles of dust are so far apart that if you were standing in it, you wouldn't even know it." ???

Thanks for playing anyway, but check minus.