Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Saturn Rings But No Spokes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the look-at-the-pretty-pictures-bob dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists continue to ponder why images of Saturn's rings today lack the 'spokes' or dark radial bands radiating outward and first observed on the Voyager flyby. The Boulder-based Cassini Image Team describes 5 visible moons, plans for the descent probe going into the Titan moon's hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere and the expected orbital entry around Saturn less than 4 months from now."

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If only NASA would bring the success of this mission into the public spotlight as a way to raise awareness as to its more successful programs.

    That's absolutely true. After what happened with the Columbia, NASA really needs to boost public support for their programs. People see the 2 shuttle disasters that have occured as being the bulk of what they accomplished, and that is just wrong.

    And of course, I'm not saying what happened isn't tragic. But people dont understand that many astronauts understand that disaster is a possibility, and they're willing to take that chance in the pursuit of the Greater Understanding.

    NASA really has to get the PR machine in motion

  2. Re:visual astronomers... by Iron+Sun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But the spokes were first observed with the CCDs on Voyager. Also, no astronomer actually looks through an eyepiece any more, its all CCDs or other detectors. All of the ground-based spoke observations (could you provide a source for such images?) are thus not going to be subject to the Percival Lowell wishful thinking effect.

    It's more likely to be due, as other posters have suggested, to be due to variations in Saturn's magnetic field. It would seem that Cassini is already producing interesting science before it goes into Saturnian orbit.

  3. Re:This is simple by RedCard · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Let's face it, manned exploration IS orders of magnitude more expensive than unmanned

    Agreed.

    ...doesn't provide much more benefit from a scientific viewpoint...

    I think that a well-trained geologist/astronaut could pull far more information from a short walk on mars than those rovers could their whole time on the surface. Besides being infinitely more maneuverable than any robot, living astronauts can devise new experiments and fix things when they go wrong. Anything a robot can do, an astronaut in a space suit can do BETTER by several orders of magnitude.

    Now, when things go wrong, it is much less tragic to lose a robot than it is to lose a space crew. However, any crew embarking on such an expedition will be fully cognizant of the risks, and I am sure that even if the trip was a guaranteed one-way ticket to mars that qualified volunteers could still be found.