25 Apr 2012 - Cassini Sees Objects Blazing Trails in Saturn Ring

[NASA]

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/images/miss-cassini-mp.jpg (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=39564)25 Apr 2012 - Cassini Sees Objects Blazing Trails in Saturn Ring
Scientists working with images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have discovered strange half-mile-sized (kilometer-sized) objects punching through parts of Saturn's F ring, leaving glittering trails behind them.


More... (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=39564)

[noprophet]

"The F ring has a circumference of 550,000 miles [881,000 kilometers], and these mini-jets are so tiny they took quite a bit of time and serendipity to find," said Nick Attree, a Cassini imaging associate at Queen Mary. "We combed through 20,000 images and were delighted to find 500 examples of these rogues during just the seven years Cassini has been at Saturn."

In some cases, the objects traveled in packs, creating mini-jets that looked quite exotic, like the barb of a harpoon. Other new images show grand views of the entire F ring, showing the swirls and eddies that ripple around the ring from all the different kinds of objects moving through and around it.

"Beyond just showing us the strange beauty of the F ring, Cassini's studies of this ring help us understand the activity that occurs when solar systems evolve out of dusty disks that are similar to, but obviously much grander than, the disk we see around Saturn," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We can't wait to see what else Cassini will show us in Saturn's rings."

NASA addressing the Ringmakers of Saturn?

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