Cassini and Saturn's rings

ToSeek · #1 (**permalink**) 07-July-2004, 06:00 PM

(I'll put any articles I post regarding Cassini's findings about the rings in this thread.)

Pictures of rings raise questions

Quote:

The best pictures of Saturn's rings ever taken have raised as many questions as they've answered.

"People are just kind of shaking their heads," deputy project scientist and ring expert Linda Spilker said of one of the images, which shows particles possibly clumping in lines that look like straw or carpet threads.

ToSeek · #2 (**permalink**) 07-July-2004, 06:05 PM

Cassini Detects Oxygen Buildup in Saturn's E Ring

Quote:

A massive oxygen buildup was seen by Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) instrument earlier this year, while the spacecraft was en route to Saturn, mission scientists said Friday. Saturn's rings are composed, for the most part, of pure water ice, good ol' H2O. As this icy material is bombarded by charged particles from Saturn's magnetosphere, it breaks down into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen. So there is always some oxygen floating around in the ring system. But what UVIS detected in Saturn's E ring wasn't just "some" oxygen; it was a tremendous burst of the stuff, that seemed suddenly to come out of nowhere.

ToSeek · #3 (**permalink**) 08-July-2004, 05:35 PM

UV images of Saturn's rings

Quote:

The best view ever of Saturn's rings in the ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward the outer part of the rings, hinting at ring origin and evolution, say two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers involved in the Cassini mission.

Swift · #4 (**permalink**) 08-July-2004, 05:54 PM

The last made CNN.com (space.com story) LINK

Quote:

Ice and mud make up Saturn's rings
By Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com
Thursday, July 8, 2004 Posted: 10:30 AM EDT (1430 GMT)
(SPACE.com) -- Saturn's rings are a lot dirtier than originally believed, according to new observations by the Cassini spacecraft that show that the inner regions are packed with rock and mud.

pumpkinpie · #5 (**permalink**) 08-July-2004, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToSeek

UV images of Saturn's rings

Quote:

The best view ever of Saturn's rings in the ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward the outer part of the rings, hinting at ring origin and evolution, say two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers involved in the Cassini mission.

=D>
Now that's what I've been waiting for! I know it's false or assigned colors, but the color shots just knock my socks off. And they translate much better than the black and white for my field of work, making planetarium shows. I can't wait to get to work on our new solar system show!

01101001 · #6 (**permalink**) 22-July-2004, 11:45 PM

Ooo. Rings in natural, pastel colors.

Thumbnail:

Swift · #7 (**permalink**) 23-July-2004, 01:33 PM

Wow is that beautiful. Thanks for posting 01101001.

beskeptical · #8 (**permalink**) 24-July-2004, 04:05 AM

This is the best astronomy, when we get the pictures.

ToSeek · #9 (**permalink**) 09-September-2004, 05:20 PM

Saturn's Rainbow Rings

Quote:

Images showing the hot and cold parts of Saturn's rings feature a false-color temperature map of this icy debris field. The red to blue rainbow represents the most accurate picture of hot to cold regions.

ToSeek · #10 (**permalink**) 10-September-2004, 06:19 PM

Cassini discovers ring and one, maybe two, objects

Quote:

Scientists examining Saturn's contorted F ring, which has baffled them since its discovery, have found one small body, possibly two, orbiting in the F ring region, and a ring of material associated with Saturn's moon Atlas.

ToSeek · #11 (**permalink**) 16-September-2004, 09:01 PM

Awesome rings image

ToSeek · #12 (**permalink**) 28-September-2004, 05:30 PM

Rings, Janus, and Mimas

ToSeek · #13 (**permalink**) 14-October-2004, 05:07 PM

Los Alamos Instrument Yields New Knowledge Of Saturn's Rings

Quote:

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have begun to analyze data from an instrument aboard the joint U.S.-European spacecraft Cassini. Although Cassini has only been orbiting the planet Saturn since July 1, data from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) has already begun to provide new information about the curious nature of Saturn's space environment.

ToSeek · #14 (**permalink**) 20-October-2004, 03:08 AM

Photo essay: Cassini and Saturn's rings

ToSeek · #15 (**permalink**) 09-November-2004, 06:49 PM

Cassini discovers music of the rings

Quote:

Saturn's magnificent ring system - a huge disc resembling an old gramophone record - turns out to share another property with the LP: it constantly emits a melodic series of musical notes.

The surprising discovery was made by radio and plasma wave detectors on board the Cassini spacecraft as it passed over Saturn's rings during its arrival at the planet in July.

The tones are emitted as radio waves. Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa says his team reduced their frequencies by a factor of five to bring them into the range of human hearing. Gurnett says he was “completely astonished" when he heard the musical notes.

I can't find a link to the actual sounds at the moment. If I do, I'll post it.

01101001 · #16 (**permalink**) 10-November-2004, 12:39 AM

Catching Saturn's Ring Waves

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This false color image of two density waves in Saturn's A ring was made from the stellar occultation observed by Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph when the spacecraft was 6.8 million kilometers (4.2 million miles) from Saturn.

Bright areas indicate the denser regions of the rings. The bright bands in the left part of the image are the "peaks" of a density wave caused by gravitational stirring of the rings by Saturn's moon, Janus. A smaller density wave in the right half of the image is produced by the moon Pandora.

01101001 · #17 (**permalink**) 01-December-2004, 08:36 AM

Gazing Down

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Cassini pierced the ring plane and rounded Saturn on Oct. 27, 2004, capturing this view of the dark portion of the rings. A portion of the planet's atmosphere is visible here, as is its shadow on the surface of the rings.

01101001 · #18 (**permalink**) 02-December-2004, 07:18 AM

Night Side Ringplane

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The usually bright B ring (at center) appears very dim in this view of the rings taken on the side of the rings that is not illuminated. The scene resembles a photographic negative, with bright and dark areas reversed (although in some places in the rings, the blackness of space is seen.) From this viewing angle, the rings are lit from below: both dense and empty regions are dark, and regions of intermediate particle density are bright.

Kullat Nunu · #19 (**permalink**) 02-December-2004, 04:18 PM

A View of the Encke Gap

01101001 · #20 (**permalink**) 04-December-2004, 03:58 AM

I know. I've been ToSeeked by topic Stunning new pics from Saturn.

I just wanted them here, where they belong.

Thieving Moon

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Potato-shaped Prometheus is seen here, connected to the ringlets by a faint strand of material. Imaging scientists are not sure exactly how Prometheus is interacting with the F ring here, but they have speculated that the moon might be gravitationally pulling material away from the ring.

Tilt and Whirl

Quote:

Zigzagging kinks and knots dance around Saturn in this movie of the F ring from Cassini. From a great distance, as during Cassini's initial approach to Saturn in mid-2004, the F ring appears as a faint, knotted strand of material at the outer fringe of Saturn's immense ring system.