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Saturn's Moons Built From Ring Material

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the lookit-all-them-moons-up-there dept.

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."

8 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Built? by skeftomai · · Score: 2, Insightful

    By god, right? How about a better word, like 'consists?'

    1. Re:Built? by ByOhTek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Built is a perfectly appropriate word. Consists simply tells what something is made of, built tells how. Since it didn't spontaneously pop into existence, built works fine.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  2. Toss another story into the DUH file by Farakin · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ummm, no shit?

  3. Re:Actually relevant by ByOhTek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The earth isn't a planet, it's aggregated stellar dust that looks like a planet!

    A planet/moon is just aggregated dust from something. Being aggregated ring dust doesn't make it less of a moon.

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  4. Too much to ask? by Kintar1900 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Too much to ask? by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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?

      Ideally you publish both. The actual photos are a bit hard for a non-expert to interpret. The stark lighting of space makes it difficult to see the full shape.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  5. Sedimentary moons . . . by SpeedyGonz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    . . . now that's a cool concept. Geeky, but cool.

  6. Re:Actually relevant by ByOhTek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If it came from a chunk of aggregated dust, doesnt that just make it a slightly more modified chunk of aggregated dust?

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).