The Vanishing Rings of Saturn Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
Saturn: jewel of the solar system, taker of breaths, ringed beauty. Even veteran astronomers can't help but gasp when they see her through a small telescope.
Red Alert: Saturn's rings are vanishing.
Around the world, amateur astronomers have noticed the change; Saturn's wide open rings are rapidly narrowing into a thin line.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 314 [+].
Saturn moon Rhea may have rings Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
New observations by a spacecraft suggest Saturn's second-largest moon may be surrounded by rings. If confirmed, it would the first time a ring system has been found around a moon.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 312 [+].
High energy electron holes reveal unseen rings Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
Gaps in the soup of high-energy particles near the orbits of two of Saturn’s tiny moons indicate that Saturn may be surrounded by undiscovered, near-invisible partial rings. A paper in the February issue of the journal Icarus suggests that the larger saturnian moons may not be the only ones contributing material to Saturn's ring system.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 255 [+].
New ring spotted around Saturn -- Old rings demoted, must now be called "hoops" Posted: 2 years ago by Galoot
Saturn has a newly discovered ring, a faint trail of particles just visible in between some of its better-known rings, NASA said on Tuesday.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 0 [+].
See Saturn Now: Lord of the Rings Rocks Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
Saturn is now at its best in our late-winter sky. It appears below and to the left of the conspicuous "sickle" or backwards question-mark pattern of stars marking the head and mane of the constellation of Leo, the Lion.
What we see with the naked eye is a bright yellowish-white "star" shining with a steady light.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 269 [+].
Saturn's rings older than first thought? Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
Saturn's shimmering rings may be as old as the solar system, scientists said Wednesday, debunking earlier theories that the rings were formed during the dinosaur age.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 234 [+].
More Strange Holes Found in Saturn's Rings Posted: 12 months ago by AutumnLotus
The discovery of more oddly shaped gaps in Saturn's rings strengthens the case that one of the planet's moons was smashed to bits in an ancient collision. Shaped like airplane propellers, the gaps likely formed when "moonlets" as large as football stadiums plowed through Saturn's ring particles while orbiting the planet.
Comments: 6 Score: [-] 285 [+].
'Flying Saucers' Around Saturn Explained Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
The formation of strange flying-saucer-shaped moons embedded in Saturn's rings have baffled scientists. New findings suggest they're born largely from clumps of icy particles in the rings themselves, an insight that could shed light on how Earth and other planets coalesced from the disk of matter that once surrounded our newborn sun.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 134 [+].
Saturn Has a 'Giant Sponge' Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
One of Saturn's rings does housecleaning, soaking up material gushing from the fountains on Saturn's tiny ice moon Enceladus, according to new observations from the Cassini spacecraft.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 286 [+].
3D Movie of Saturn's Rings During Ring Plane Crossing Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
This 3D movie was made from a sequence of images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft as it crossed the plane of Saturn's main rings.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 159 [+].
Top 10 Most Unusual Rings of 2008 Posted: 4 weeks ago by Bornbad
There are some really innovative, whacky, cool, and downright outrageous rings out there. Here is a list of Top 10 Most Unusual Rings of 2008.
Comments: 8 Score: [-] 481 [+].
Cassini Finds Possible Origin of One of Saturn's Rings Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Cassini scientists may have identified the source of one of Saturn's more mysterious rings. Saturn's G ring likely is produced by relatively large, icy particles that reside within a bright arc on the ring's inner edge.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 64 [+].
Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck argue on live TV (again) Posted: 1 year ago by Moe
So these two morons continue to attempt to grab fame by acting like idiots on The View.
I am submitting this headline - it is real. BUT I am linking it to an actual cool story about new stuff we have discovered about Saturn's rings.
Hopefully, we can all ignore the two clowns and they will just go away.
Comments: 6 Score: [-] 75 [+].
Saturn Does the Wave in Upper Atmosphere Posted: 5 months ago by AutumnLotus
Two decades of scrutinizing Saturn are finally paying off, as scientists have discovered a wave pattern, or oscillation, in Saturn's atmosphere only visible from Earth every 15 years.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 191 [+].
Seeds of life found near Saturn Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
A sniff test of water vapor spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus shows it is gushing with organic molecules, increasing the possibility of life existing somewhere in the Saturn system.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 355 [+].
Saturn And 'Forbidden Planet' Movie Share Music Posted: 11 months ago by AutumnLotus
High resolution observations of Saturn's radio emissions have just been made public by NASA. Listen to NASA's Saturn radio emissions, then listen to the classic 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet. The similarities are startling.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 201 [+].
Rings around Uranus captured in rare photo Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers have captured their first glare-free glimpse of Uranus's rings since they were first photographed more than 20 years ago by the Voyager spacecraft.
Comments: 9 Score: [-] 241 [+].
Planetary line-up excites the sun Posted: 3 months ago by AutumnLotus
Australian astronomers may have found a solution to how far-away Jupiter and Saturn drive the sun's solar cycle. Astronomer Dr Ian Wilson and colleagues suggest Jupiter and Saturn affect the sun's movement and its rotation, and hence its sunspot activity.
Comments: 5 Score: [-] 475 [+].
Hot spot on Enceladus causes plumes Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
Enceladus, the tiny satellite of Saturn, is colder than ice, but data gathered by the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan has detected a hot spot that could mean there is life in the old moon after all. In fact, for researchers of the outer planets, Enceladus is so intellectually hot, it's smokin'.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 225 [+].
Jupiter's Rings Are Shaped By Interplay Of Sunlight And Shadow Posted: 5 months ago by AutumnLotus
Scientists appear to have solved a long-standing mystery about the cause of anomalies in Jupiter's gossamer rings. In a new study published, they report that a faint extension of the outermost ring beyond the orbit of Jupiter's moon Thebe, and other observed deviations from an accepted model of ring formation, result from the interplay of shadow and sunlight on dust particles that make up the rings.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 316 [+].
Rings Posted: 1 year ago by gnikgnok
A virtual game version of those plastic stacking rings you had as a toddler. But more fun.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 153 [+].