aesmael

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

In the past week I have been surprised by two pieces of news concerning Saturn and rings.

First, from the Planetary Society Blog: findings which might be evidence for a posited ring around Rhea. As described in that article, a series of equatorial spots on Rhea bright in ultaviolet light might be evidence of collisions from ring particles orbiting the moon. These particles, if they exist, would occupy a size and distribution which makes them particularly difficult to detect visually directly with the instruments we currently have available.

It seems the idea of rings around Rhea has been around longer than I have been aware of. Apparently they were originally proposed to explain a decreased electron flux in the vicinity of Rhea back in 2005, and I sure didn't realise there was this much evidence already. Would be very exciting indeed to get a direct and definite confirmation about this.

Sadly given how difficult these rings are proving to image, it is unlikely there will ever be beautiful views of the Rhean ringscape. We shall just have to comfort ourselves with the knowledge of something wonderful.

The other news is the discovery of a new ring around Saturn itself. This one, discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope, is the largest and most diffuse planetary ring yet discovered. The details can be found in this press release. Basically it is very large and very faint, and only detected because of its cool infrared glow. I am concerned that the end of the release specifies this information was gathered before Spitzer ran out of coolant, and whether this means we won't be able to obtain further observations of the ring for a while. It might take us a long time to discover if this ring 'only' spans from six to twelve million kilometres from Saturn, or if that were merely its brightest, densest part.

Apart from the amazement of a whole new feature being discovered, this is particularly intriguing because Saturn's moon Phoebe orbits within this ring and is thought to be the source of its material (via dust knocked off from impacts, most likely). If so, and depending on what else is found, this ring could be a key part of one of astronomy's longer-standing mysteries: the two faces of Iapetus. Although it has long been suspected that material from Phoebe deposited on Iapetus is the reason that moon has one bright hemisphere and one dark (more or less), I think this ring is the first actual detection of a possible mechanism for the transfer of this material.

If that bears out I think I will finally have an answer to a mystery I have been intrigued by since I was a young child; for a long time Iapetus has been one of the solar system bodies I was most fascinated by.

Emily Lakdawalla reports on the recent discovery of four (as yet unnamed) moons orbiting Saturn. So far that makes 60, none of which can make a decent cocktail.
These new moons, like many of Saturn's, are about half the size of Deimos, which is pretty small. The curious should click through if they wish to see an animation of the discovery images for one of the newly found satellites.

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: floor
Current Music: The Roundabout - Enigma [Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi]

I'm up, I'm up! Finished reading Hard Times the other day too. I can see why Dickens would be criticised for being overly sentimental but it does not bother me, I see it as what one should expect when reading one of his stories (perhaps that will change as I read more). I would say I like it and he seemed a better writer than when he penned Oliver Twist (oh, don't ask me to be more detailed than that, I don't know that I could) but it did not touch my heart so deeply. Not to say I was entirely unmoved, there were simply fewer tears drawn forth. More of an empty, hollow feeling really, which considering the subject matter may have been more appropriate (intended?) after all.

It was amusing to see Gradgrind and Bounderby's insistence on Fact, Fact, Fact! and yet being blind to what the facts of the matter were (and are). That humans have fancies and a need for socialisation is a fact too and people will not be happy if this is denied (see, I think I got the point of the story). James Harthouse I was delighted with from his introduction as just the sort of person to carelessly break the back of the heartless situation set up, rather like someone stepping heedlessly into a glass door (I could not do better than Dickens own comparison to an iceberg). Such fun the schadenfreude of seeing those who raised themselves up high helpless before the idle fancies of one born to it (though I do not normally condone aristocracy [and nor did Dickens to judge by his final scene]). Also loved to pieces the phrase 'deadly-statistical clock'.

Next thing to read is A Christmas Carol, all in the same volume. I am finding it a little slow going, maybe because the plot has been so thoroughly adapted ad nauseum. But, I am determined to see the original through (and it is very short, just the right length for a script, maybe?). ^_^

I am feeling tempted to do for these stories what I used to do on my old MSN Space and rate them for content as if they were films. Could be amusing.

On Sunday, a'course, I rewatched V for Vendetta. That still brings tears to my eyes. Huh, don't seem to have too much to say of it unprompted right now.

And just to finish things off here are some photos of some Saturnian moons, most taken by Cassini:

Janus
Epimetheus
Janus & Epimetheus swapping orbits
Pandora
Telesto, little co-orbital of Tethys
Hyperion (looks like something from the sea floor dried out [sponge, ne?])
So much to learn!

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: dark room
Current Music: Real Wild Child (Wild One) - Iggy Pop

( I should be working but wanted to share these images from Celestia )

I do find Titan and most other small bodies endlessly fascinating, but knowledge has moved on so fast the past few years I feel quite lost to catch up.

Ahwell, bye for now.
^_^

Current Mood: loved
Current Music: nomusic

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