Discussion: Saturn's Bands Becoming Clearer

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: As Cassini nears Saturn, new details are becoming clearer, including the banded clouds that make up the planet's atmosphere. When Cassini took this latest image on April 16, it was 38.5 million kilometers (23.9 million miles) away. It's close enough now that the entire planet no long fits inside a single frame of the spacecraft's narrow angle camera. The banded clouds follow Saturn's lines of longitude, which are created by the planet's rotation. Cassini will reach Saturn in July, 2004.

What do you think about this story? Post your comments below.

[kashi]

Looks amazing! I can't wait for the one where 20 photos are combined to produce a single high res photo of the whole planet.

[Algenon the mouse]

My students are studying Saturn and they had a question I did not know the answer too:


Do the rings count as moons around Saturn and, if so, how many moons make up the rings?

[Eric Vaxxine]

This is pie in the sky... ... and probably goes against all resonable scientific thinking.. .. .. but if I was a space traveller, a ringed planet would be an ideal landmark (spacemark) to tell me where I was.

What I don't understand about Saturn, is how those fine rings are able to remain so stable. Is it dust or boulder size particles. If you flew a probe through those marvellous rings, would the particles scatter?

Why arn't these rings pulled in towards the planet itself?

[TuTone]

Interesting thought on those rings. :huh:
I think those rings are made up of boulder size pieces of ice.
& the reason why the rings aren't being pulled into the planet ifself is the same reason why our moon isn't being pulled into Earth. :mellow:

[Algenon the mouse]

But isn't the orbit of the rings slowly deteriorating? I think I read this somewhere...

But, getting back to my question, do they count as moons? If so how many?

[Duane]

No Algenon, they do not count as moons, although there are a few moonlets imbedded in the rings.

[DippyHippy]

Exactly Duane - so are the shepherd moons simply large clumps of ring material?

[Algenon the mouse]

That was my next question because I noticed that some websites list the rings as moons and some do not. It not only confused (confuzzled) my students, but me as well.

[evenstar]

:blink: iam new here and just learning about saturn. i recently bought a bushnell reflector telescope and despartly trying to find saturn. any suggestions on how i begin? any books, charts or wisdom would be helpful.


thanks,

evenstar[a very bored mom]

[Manchurian Taikonaut]

Evenstar

As far as I know we can not see Saturn now, if you were to draw an arc through the sky you would find that Jupiter, the Moon and Staurn all move along the same path. ( Maybe some one lese can comfirm this because I know stuff about planets but I don't know a whole lot about star gazing )

As far as i understand We could see Saturn and Jupiter in April, but now its too close to the Sun

I think it would be near what the Westerners call Geminis the twin points of light from Pollux and Caster

Saturn is ahead of jupiter and too near the western setting Sun, but Jupiter can still be seen as the bright start near the setting Sun

The best way we will see the real glory and beauty of Saturn is by the Europe-USA made probes



Cassini-Huygens mission has made Titan ( Saturn's mystery moon ) a top priority. The probe has returned its first images of Titan’s surface, and the veil enshrouding Saturn’s largest moon has begun to lift.

http://www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynamic/A...01/729uziox.asp

this is how saturn might have looked by telescope in April

http://www.eaas.co.uk/images/stronge/satur...rn/saturn7a.jpg


I think you can still catch Jupiter and its four moons

http://www.corney.net/Astro/images/Jup%2012Oct00.jpg

[Planetwatcher]

But, getting back to my question, do they count as moons? If so how many?

No, The rings do not count as moons. But there are five moons embedded within the rings.
There are 7 known distinctive rings (all designated by letters) and last I knew 5 shepherd moons. They are Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, and Mimas.
All range in distance from the planet between 130 and 190 thousand Km.
Four of the five range in diameter between 20 and 90 Km. Mimas the largest of the Shepherds is nearly 400 Km accross.

The shepherd moons help keep the rings in place. All four of the ringed planets have shepherd moons.
Jupiter has 4, which are Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, and Thebe.
Uranus has 2, Cordelia, and Ophelia.
Neptune has at least 2, Dispina, and Galatia that I know of.

But isn't the orbit of the rings slowly deteriorating? I think I read this somewhere...

I think you might be referring to Neptune. It's been said that Neptune's moons and rings are well within the Swartachild radius and that the moon's orbits are decaying, and that Neptunes rings are slowly decending. But I've heard no such thing about Saturn.

[Algenon the mouse]

Thanks! I will pass on the information! That makes more sense.