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What NASA Found Beyond The Rings Of Saturn (omaha.com)
NASA's Cassini spacecraft explored the inner edge of the rings of Saturn for the first time, and Phys.org reports that it made a surprising discovery: nothing. "Scientists have been surprised to find that not all that much -- not even space dust -- lies between Saturn's iconic rings." After the first pass, the NASA official managing the project described the the region between the rings and Saturn as "the big empty." An anonymous reader quotes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Cassini also beamed back pictures and other essential data as it maneuvered the 1,500-mile-wide space between the solar system's second largest planet and its icy rings. The images, which take 78 minutes to make the billion-mile trip back to Earth, reveal a blazing, mysterious process of alternating light and darkness in the rings that scientists will be working for years to understand. That seems only fair since it has already taken 20 years for Cassini to be in a position to do what it is doing so far.
Between now and September, Cassini will make 22 dives between Saturn's rings and the planet, clocking at an impressive 76,800 mph each time. The end result should be a treasure trove of stunning images of the planet and its diverse and mysterious rings, along with detailed maps of the gas giant's gravity, magnetic fields and atmospheric conditions. On Sept. 15, it will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, streaming data back to Earth as it makes its descent of no return.
Between now and September, Cassini will make 22 dives between Saturn's rings and the planet, clocking at an impressive 76,800 mph each time. The end result should be a treasure trove of stunning images of the planet and its diverse and mysterious rings, along with detailed maps of the gas giant's gravity, magnetic fields and atmospheric conditions. On Sept. 15, it will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, streaming data back to Earth as it makes its descent of no return.
At least we know that we have a safe place for several SNSS ( Saturnian Navigational Satellite Systems) to coexist...
Beyond the rings of Saturn was... Saturn! ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I thought the current theory was that most of the gaps in Saturn's rings are caused by gravitational resonances with other orbiting bodies; these resonances having cleared the resonance orbits in question. I haven't RTFA yet, but is the point that actually finding nothing validates the model, or is there too much nothing, or what?
Between now and September, Cassini will make 22 dives between Saturn's rings and the planet, clocking at an impressive 76,800 mph each time
It seems pretty clear that they opted for the Tesla "insane mode" upgrade. Damn those cars are fast. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Private enterprise is cheaper than big government. Government is bad, so private is better. Why should the budget be wasted on the government doing things at cost, when it can be used to extract funds from people and pay them to billionaires making huge profits?
Learn to love Alaska
Can you explain what this has to do with Jupiter, its' rings, or the Cassini spacecraft?
Penal colonies. Duh.
Learn to love Alaska
I guess all the space dust has been sucked up by the space vacuum and put in the space bin.
Headline says Beyond, article says Inside.
Words matter folks.
What are the chances that Cassini will collide with some asteroid or rock orbiting Saturn before ending its mission?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Cassini did not find any material beneath the rings of Saturn - that is, between the lowest ring, the D ring, and the atmosphere of Saturn. I don't know why headline writers have been getting this so consistently wrong.
Does that mean that they no longer need to use the main antenna as a shield when it's going through the gap?
No wormhole? I'm dissapointed.
Absolutely nothing happened in Sector 83 by 9 by 12 today. I repeat, nothing happened in Sector 83 by 9 by 12.
Sorry for not bursting your bubble.
Saturn is too cold for even hendreds of nukes to be able to create a chain reaction with the gas in the atmosphere.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
s/hendreds/hundreds/
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
You need 180 Saturn masses to ignite a star. You forgot about the monoliths.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
exactly!!
...teasing Down's people
Oh, the sweet irony.
Yes, but not where you thought it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Lightnings in Saturn atmosphere are already stronger than any plutonium explosion
Not to mention that the Plutonium-238 used in RTGs is not fissile and produces only alpha particles, and thus can never go critical.
It's interesting to me how we can have people devote their lives to a cause - Animal Rights, Gender Rights, Pollution Cleanup, whatever... Then we have folks whose careers focus on one major project (e.g. the B-52 that has been in service for 70 years, or the ALCM that has been around for 30... to say nothing of design and development for either). And here we have people who devote a few years planning and building, then may never get to see the results. I'd imagine something as big as a probe to do X would have more than it's fair share of greybeards on board to figure out trajectories, contingencies, etc... 20 years is more than enough time for someone who was 40 at the start to be in or considering retirement.
The fact that it took 20 years to get Cassini into position is itself amazing. We are talking using technology from 2 decades ago. That's the difference between the N64 and the Switch, (or ps1 and ps4). That's Pentium 2 (almost 3) era technology, CPU's were roughly 600 MHz. Now we have quad-core 1.2 GHz in our pockets.
Oh, and get off my lawn.