Saturn's New Ring
January 31st 2010 05:24
Category: No Category
An artist's impression on Satrun's new ring
Saturn was thought to have only seven rings named A through to E and few faint unnamed rings.
NASAS’s new telescope called the Spitzer Space Telescope was able discover a new undiscovered ring by picking up tiny particles of dust and ice using an infrared instrument.
Custom Search
The largest known rings in the solar system was Saturn's E ring.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, published the discovery, said the ring was probably made up of left over particles kicked off Saturn's moon Phoebe by small impacts from passing asteroids.
The telescope was able to pick up very small particles of ring dust, that shine with thermal radiation from the Sun, by using an infrared wavelength.
The ring's orbit is inclined at 27 degrees from the planet's main ring system. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).
The question is why did it take scientists so long to discover something so massive?
The ring is made up of ice and dust particles that are spread so far apart that if you happened to flying within this ring, you would be totally unaware you were actually in it.
| 43 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
yes a bit like that. how a large ring be so delicate just goes to show how little we know about our planets. we are geting there slowly.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief