Slashdot Mirror
Saturn's Rings Could be Disappearing
fenimor writes "Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is probably best known for its famous planetary rings. They extend from 6,630 km to 120,700 km above Saturn's equator, and are composed of silica rock, iron oxide, and ice particles. A massive eruption of atomic oxygen from Saturn's outer rings, seen by Cassini's ultraviolet camera, may be an indication that the planet's wispy E ring is eroding so fast that it could disappear within 100 million years if not replenished."
Whoa, we better get cracking on that one right away.
Canthros
Let's fill a space shuttle up with rocks and ice, and then send it out to Saturn and replenish the ring ourselves!
If not replenished? What - are we expecting humanity to do this? It's a natural course of events that not even the most extreme environmentalists could possibly blame on humanity...
Of course, TFA states it in a much less drastic manner, talking about a natural process to replenish, which, of course, would be fascinating to learn about - and could be useful in figuring out natural processes for replenishing other things, whether ozone, or other phenomena (hard to predict without the knowledge we would gain!)
Is the universe doomed?
100 Millions Years, thats like ..... TOMORROW. OH MY GOD somebody do something, the rings of saturn are disappearing faster than a girls virginity on prom night
I can't remember or find the exact words right now, but in the novel "2001" Aruther C. Clarke had some words about how the rings were a fragile and transitory phenomenon and had probably only come into existance a few hundred thousand* years before... roughly the same time that human beings appeared on the scene.
(*number pulled out of butt)
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
errrr.....BUSH!!!!
... that is, if the Americans don't start harvesting it to make ice cubes. Better yet... E Ring Bottled Water! Straight from the rings of Saturn... Makes Dasani seem kinda ... ordinary. :)
until it becomes Americas problem or when the rings become a threat to America and must be dealt with by force. One or the other will happen.
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
That was the vague universe news.
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
I'll fill up my ice-cube tray!
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
According to theory, the rings were originally made up of water ice, but over the years they have been bombarded with a lot of other material (rock, I presume) so that they are now quite dirty. A lot of dust has landed on Saturn's moons as well; see for instance Phoebe and Iapetus, the latter showing a nearly black leading hemisphere (imagine pushing a snowball in front of you through an ash cloud for 100 million years).
In other words, what is desperately needed up there is a vacuum cleaner (then we can send the sufficiently cleaned ice on a trajectory towards Mars, to be used for irrigation).
I've heard rumors on the internets that the oxygens are attacking Saturn. I hear Titan is full of methane, so we will invade... to protect it, of course
Yes this is a wicked Troll.
The evaporation of the Rings of Saturn are caused by Global Warming. We all *know* that Global Warming is caused by American vehicles.
Therefore, the United Nations should take immediate action and pass a bunch of "resolutions" sternly warning those bastard Americans that they are ruining the beauty of Saturn's Rings and will be in Real Big Trouble Any Time Now.
Only then will the Rings be saved.
.
First of all, 100 million years is a pretty long time, even by planet standards. Second, the E-ring is easily one of the most tenuous of the rings. (You've never seen it through a telescope, for example.) The A, B, and C rings, the ones you've seen, are a lot denser. It's not clear if they're disappearing, and if so, how long they'd last. In fact, if you get past the sensational leader paragraph, you discover that it is far from clear that the oxygen even came from the E-ring.
Actually, whoever wrote that article didn't really check the facts all that well. A quick check would have shown that the E-ring only starts at 180,000 km from the planet's center (that's 120,000 km from the "surface"). It extends out another 300,000 km, so this isn't a totally trivial point. Also, the UVIS instrument, fantastic though it is, hasn't discovered all of the things that they claim it did. Most of those observations were made in the visible wavelengths. And were discovered by, er, Voyager. I mean, I hate to be nitpicky on the one hand, but is it so much to ask for people to try to keep the facts straight?
Why is it that everybody feels that we must enact change, even when it isn't our place? The erosion of this ring is a natural process and should be allowed to proceed thus. If it was our fault that the erosion is occuring then I could understand the need to fix it, but I don't believe this is the case.
See what global warming is doing! It's even melting the ice rings of saturn!
And you all thought global warming wasn't going to happen... pfft...
This reckons that planetisimals can form from dusty ice slush in "a few thousand years" and it's not alone. Having a look at the known turmoil in the rings - shepherd moons and so on - they have to have a fairly solid source of replenishment somewhere, or they'd be history in mere millennia.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
If it's just the E ring in danger of going away, then how is it "rings" could be disappearing? That's a bit sensational.
Well seriously this should have been posted under the LOTR topic. It rings too true to have it discussed by specialists of the one ring. (-;
Microsoft is pure dog-ma. FreeBSD is pure cat-ma.
Big Alien TV commercial: "Oh those dirty rings. Satty gets teased at school. We MUST wash them away, but my brand X soap just doesn't work...."
Table-ized A.I.
its good for replenishment.
Should what you suggest actually happen, it will most likely be traceable to a failure in the Clinton Administration.
[*ducks*]
Ok...put your rocks down...I'm registered independant, that means I can take shots at both sides of the aisle.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
thats why i like being libertarian, you can sit back and laugh at all the mudslinging idiots go at it, and you dont join in cuz you know its a 2 party system, god bless America.
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye