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Saturn's Moons Built From Ring Material
LiquidCoooled writes "Two of Saturn's small moons look eerily like flying saucers, new observations by the Cassini spacecraft reveal. The moons, which lie within the giant planet's rings, may have come by their strange shape by gradually accumulating ring particles in a ridge around their equators."
Wow, the "that's no moon" comments actually have some relevance now, as one can say "that's not moon... it's aggregated ring material that only looks like a moon!"
I got a catholic block.
By god, right? How about a better word, like 'consists?'
Saturn's moons are made of Scrith?
Saturn's Rings are made of moon material? Is this chick or egg?
--- no sig to see here... move along.
I just can't to seem to find it.
Moons are just LOTR spin offs
One moon to rule them all.
I hope they are better then The Silmarillion
ummm, no shit?
Is it too much to ask that New Scientist stop using crappy CGI and start posting some of the actual photographs that the astronomers used to form their theories?
That moon with the big wall on it (can't remember which planet it orbits)- could it have a similar explanation? That is, an already-formed moon runs through a very thin ring for a couple of centuries, accumulating the ring material in one big long pile that ends up looking like a wall?
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
Fourteen posts and no "That's no moon..." jokes yet?
Chris Mattern
Aren't the rings bashed up/unformed moons anyhow?
stuff |
Goddammit, it's:
Bring them all
and in the darkness bind them
One moon to find them
One moon to bring them all into the darkness
and bind them!
The problem is the ring overshadows the moon.
It take more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in God
That's no moon...wait...it was a minute ago...your telling me that it made out of...ahh I give up!!!
. . . now that's a cool concept. Geeky, but cool.
saturn's moons are not the only thing that are bulging in the middle
The linked article has 3D renderings of models. Actual photos of the moons are here. The real photos look distinctly weird.
Clearly, we'll have to revise our "That's no moon!" filters.
I thought it was obvious that the numerous moons of Saturn came about as a result of collections within the rings. That is why you see gaps in and around the orbits of the moons.
According to the article, the scientists involved are saying the moon was formed in two phases and that the second phase had the moon pull in ring material and add it on top of the first phase. While it's general scientific consensus that the rings of saturn were probably caused by a moon breaking up, the use of 'probably' is important. We're still looking for that kernel of truth that will prove decisively one theory over another. This isn't a case of the whole evolution vs creationism debacle - there's more than one view on the creation of the rings of Saturn. It should tell you something that NASA doesn't mention the method of ring creation on their 'rings of saturn' page: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Saturn&Display=Rings
The Homeland Security Department released a memo this morning citing the Moons of Saturn for "...devious and unnatural behaviour..." and warned that their actions could be taken as "...preliminary build-up for a terrorist strike against the hard working dairy providers of America."
Osama Bin Ladin also released a tape stating that the Koran clearing shows that "...all moons are made of goat cheese..." and warned against the "...American cheese heresy that threatens good Muslims everywhere." A leak from the Mexican government showed they have plans to illegally bring jalopenos into the Saturn Moon/Cheese mix.
The White House is expected to release a statement later today detailing a potential preemptive Wine and Cracker strike.
It take more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in God
... because they ARE.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Oh man, who would have thought! A source of scrith in our own solar system!
Guys, I wasn't so sure about getting into a space race with China, but now I know we need to get there first. Anyone know how close we are to an actual cziltang brone?
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
by being thrown in the mountain of DOOM!! OMG!!
how long until
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2865 //and congratulations to New Scientist for the most annoying holiday ad ever.
Let's see - the moons in the rings (or more precisely in the divisions between rings generally) are called "Shepherd Moons" since they herd the ring particles. So, now we find that over time they add mass to their equators. Like human shepherds eating too much - these folks can also add mass at the equator - especially if they eat some of their flock like these shepherd moons are doing.
Someone explain to me how those ring particles got compressed into such a solid-looking moon. If these particles are just gradually coalescing due to gravity, that would result in a "fluff ball" of particles, not a solidly packed mass. By what force are these particles packed together into a solid mass?
Evolution is a fact. Darwinism is a joke.
Ok How many of you immedeately thought of RingWorld by Larry Niven?
Am I the only one who saw the article and read "Sailor Moon .... " ? I was thinking wow, I wonder why this is on the front page of /. And then when I re-read the title, I was disappointed :-(
Astronomers have determined that the shape of the satellite determines whether it is classified as a moon or not. In an astounding landslide at the latest meeting, it was declared that saucer shaped satellites are to be labeled actual moons, while the spherical satellites are now called pseudo-moons. This in a new spree of reclassifications by astronomers has confused many people.
One picture clearly shows a transmitter dish pointing directly at the Earth, which is the source of the navigational data for the black helicopters, as relayed by UFO's.
Crater? That's what they WANT you to think.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Its a nice tune, but I prefer Paint the Sky with Stars
The game.
Using cheap, local building materials is the way to go.
Dosn't Iapetus also have a well defined (albeit less pronounced) equatorial ridge as well? I wonder if that is formed the same way?
Why would you want to ban sexually aroused homosexuals? What have they ever done to you?
Oooooooh . . . that!!! Was it painful? Well, I'm sure, for you, it was a good kind of painful.
The narrator has the most horrific Franglais ever! Barely intelligible. Why, why, why did they let a French guy narrate the story? But the strange moons are impressive.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
c'mon now man...this does not belong in the 'duh' file
since galleleo humans have seen rings around saturn and wondered how they got there. these types of discoveries help answer that question.
more specifically, according to TFA, many speculate that saturn's rings are the detritus from some sort of collision event in the early solar system, and that these moons are large chunks left over from that. if that's true then examining a physical specimine from these moons could tell us alot about what the early solar system was like, which in turn will tell us more about our own planet
this is science, not 'duh'
Thank you Dave Raggett
"Two of Saturn's small moons look eerily like flying saucers."
More fuel for conspiracy theorists. I can't wait for the first accusations that the US built and deployed these fake moons to assist in the take-over of the solar system in 2012.