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Prometheus Caught Stealing From Saturn's Rings

Posted by timothy on from the restitution-might-be-tough dept.

merryprankster writes "Saturn's Moon Prometheus is living up to the reputation of its Greek namesake. New Scientist is reporting that the latest images from the Cassini probe show the moon "stealing" material for Saturn's F-ring. Evidence of this had been seen by Cassini in the past in the form of "streamers" and gravitation wobbles within the rings but more fantastic images have now caught the thief in the act."

35 comments

  1. Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by KublaiKhan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except that the last time Prometheus stole something, didn't he get chained to a rock with an eagle ripping out his liver?

    Some people never learn...

    --
    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
    A stately pleasure dome decree
    1. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, it's all fun and games until someone gets their liver eaten by an eagle.

    2. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 1

      Well, in fairness, this time he's stealing ice rather than fire. So maybe he's trying to make amends.

    3. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought that was Tantalus

    4. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by relaxrelax · · Score: 1


      Glad to see my tax dollars at work. How many millions of dollars per pretty picture is that?

      Just wondering the cost/effectiveness of the whole thing...

      --
      Microsoft is pure dog-ma. FreeBSD is pure cat-ma.
    5. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Carnivore · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, I don't know how many pictures we'll get, but the following calculation is enlightening.

      I found all numbers from Google, so they are approximate. The order of magnitude should remain the same, though.

      NASA budget: $15 billion
      Federal budget: $3350.779 billion

      Percentage of NASA budget to the Federal budget:
      0.447%

      Half a percent.

      So if we assume that you make $60k, and you have $4k of federal tax (wild-ass guess based on my much smaller salary), then you pay $17 a year for ALL of NASA.

      I'd say that that's a pretty damn good deal, myself.

    6. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'd be more concerned with what Prometheus does when he steals something. What'd he do with the fire? Oh, right, he gave it straight to mankind. What's he going to do with the ice? Oh crap.

    7. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by MrCreosote · · Score: 1

      As opposed to the cost/benefits of the little excursion into Iraq

      OTOH, what's the point of having all that cool military tech if you don't get to use it once in a while.

      --
      MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
    8. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Commander+Trollco · · Score: 1

      Tantalus was a person, or demigod, or something, that Hercules had to defeat. He gained his strength from touching the earth, so every time Hercules threw him down, he came back with strength bonus +8 vs Greeks.

      --
      http://persianews.on.nimp.org/?u=Tar_Baby
    9. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Auraveda · · Score: 1

      Ok then, they can go blow up your house next time, instead of invading another country.

    10. Re:Hey....it's all mythological-like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And to think, I thought it was all fun and games after somebody loses an eye.

  2. Ring-stealing Theif! by the+darn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fithly Greek Godses! They steals our preciousss orbital debris...

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post.
  3. Moonlet? by fbjon · · Score: 1

    Various dictionaries say: "A small natural or artificial satellite." So how is it different from an asteroid? According to google results they seem to be associated with Saturns rings, and Wikipeia is silent... astronomers, please fill in information here: ____________

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    1. Re:Moonlet? by jhdevos · · Score: 1

      I suppose the difference must be in what the object orbits: an asteroid is something that orbits the sun, while moonlets orbit smaller things like moons, or maybe asteroids. IANAA, however :)

      Jan

    2. Re:Moonlet? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, for one thing, an asteroid is a rocky/metallic body that orbits the Sun, not a planet. Moons can be made of anything and orbit planets (major or minor).

      I'm dubious of a definition of "moon" that allows for artifical satellites, by the way. While the use of the word "moon" is somewhat debated in astronomical circles (there are those who claim that it should only apply to the Moon), I don't know that anyone thinks that it should include artifical satellites.

    3. Re:Moonlet? by shpoffo · · Score: 1

      I think it has something to do with the eccentricity of orbit, but I am nto precisely sure. The comments in a /. story about "the Earth's three moons" or somesuch go into detail on the difference between a moon and not-moons. Sorry, I'm not going to do that research for you, though.

      .
      -shpoffo

    4. Re:Moonlet? by xenoarch · · Score: 1

      Mar's moons, Phoebos and Deimos, are nothing more then captured asteroids. and the definition of satellite is a celestial body that orbits a planet. While an asteriod is a small celestial body that orbits the sun. So the only difference is what it orbits.

    5. Re:Moonlet? by fbjon · · Score: 1

      Ok, but are they really moons then? SHouldn't they be called moonlets?

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    6. Re:Moonlet? by dpilot · · Score: 2, Funny

      We're being pulled toward that small moon.
      That's not a moon, that's a spaceship!

      (as long as this topic is on the same day as another "Star Wars: The Phantom Edit" discussion.)

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    7. Re:Moonlet? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 2, Informative

      What, Mars's moons? No. They're big enough to be moons.

      A moonlet is of order 10 km is diameter, typically. Actually, I don't think we've actually seen any to date. (Well, not conclusively.) In reality, the term is sort of slang anyway. Either you're a moon or you aren't. (Ring particles, dust, etc. are too small to be moons. Bigger, natural things orbiting planets... moons.)

    8. Re:Moonlet? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 2, Informative

      Eccentricity isn't a player in moon-ness. It can tell you something about the origin of the moon in question (a large eccentricity, along with a high inclination and a retrograde orbit, is symptomatic of a captured body), but the distinction is bascially: does the object orbit a planet and is it bigger than some minimum size. (Probably in the region of kilometers or tens of kilometers. Opinions will vary about where to draw the line.)

    9. Re:Moonlet? by Dysan2k · · Score: 1


      It looks like it's heading towards that small moon.
      That's no moon. It's a space station!

      --
      -What have you contributed lately?
    10. Re:Moonlet? by dpilot · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected.

      Perhaps I should be happy that I can't quote Star Wars correctly, but I wouldn't want to be insulting towards you.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    11. Re:Moonlet? by Dysan2k · · Score: 1

      Aw heck.. I'm just being nit-picky.. feel free ta bash if ya need. There's a handful of movies I know verbatim or darn near, so I'll "correct" what I see sometimes. SW just happens to be one of those.

      --
      -What have you contributed lately?
    12. Re:Moonlet? by dpilot · · Score: 1

      The scary thing is, my whole family, wife, son, daughter, and me, can all recite tag-lines from an old cartoon called, Freakazoid. It was made by Steven Spielberg, and only lasted 2 seasons. But in those two seasons were some of (IMHO) the BEST cartoons ever made, especially considering modern cartoons. (I would probably agree that the old Chuck Jones stuff was BEST, though I did like some earlier stuff, too.)

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    13. Re:Moonlet? by Dysan2k · · Score: 1

      *FREAK OUT*

      Hehehe.. yeah, I saw about 10 episodes of it. It was pretty good, but I just didn't get into it as much as a lot of peeps.

      --
      -What have you contributed lately?
  4. Gravity by mknewman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gravity sucks, doesn't it?

  5. Copyright! by Daagar · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not stealing, it's copyright infringement. How many times must we go over this. Oh, wait...

  6. Full-size image by Fortran+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's the original image from NASA's collection of raw images. A related image is here.

    --
    I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
    1. Re:Full-size image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is an awesome picture of Uranus and its moons http://images.google.com/images?q=goatse.cx&hl=en& lr=&client=firefox-a&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=images

  7. but I just didn't get into it as much by dpilot · · Score: 1

    Oh, that's so very, very sad.
    (in my best Dexter's mother's voice)

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  8. Or Wotan, but that's a different Ring by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Of course, Wotan stole the ring from Alberich the Niebelung, who'd made it with the Rheingold he'd stolen, and after Wotan used the ring to pay off the giants, various other people kept stealing it from each other.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  9. Opportunity cost is much higher by billstewart · · Score: 1
    There are a lot of hidden costs, plus your arithmetic's way off - the average American pays a lot more taxes than that. There are about 150 million US taxpayers, so that's about $100 per taxpayer. If you're interested in that kind of thing, that's still not a bad deal, but if only 20% of taxpayers are interested, then that's $500 per interested taxpayer, and if only 10% of taxpayers are interested, that's $1000 per interested taxpayer. Total Federal spending is about $20-25,000 per taxpayer (not sure if your numbers include Social Security or not, and that includes spending that's paid for by taxes and deficit spending that'll be paid for by taxes later on) - your wild-ass guess ignores the "tax the rich" effect and the "don't bother taxing the poor" effects (progressive tax rates and standard deductions.)

    The other things that you could have done with the money are an obvious opportunity cost, but the much more serious cost is the rocket scientists themselves. Sure, they're doing lots of cool rocket science, and occasionally the things they build are useful in the civilian parts of the real world, but they could be using their skills to build things that the real world really needs, like more efficient cars, better passenger airplanes, solar power plants, better water treatment systems, better hydrogen refiners, the foobaralyzer system that would have revolutionized the economy except that the guy who would have invented it was building Space Shuttles instead.

    And meanwhile, Paul Allen's probably spent less than $150 million between SETI and the recent space flights, and he's been cooler than NASA for about 1% of the budget.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks