Stunning
new views of Saturn from a NASA spacecraft have revealed odd formations in the
planet's trademark rings, including ripples as tall as the Rocky Mountains.
The new
images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that Saturn's icy rings -
once thought to be relatively thin - can be miles thick in some points and
include weird, bright streaks from clouds kicked up by the cosmic clash between
ring particles and interloping space debris.
"It's
like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first
time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini's project scientist at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement. "This is among
the most important events Cassini
has shown us."
Cassini
recorded the new images of Saturn in the week surrounding the planet's Aug. 11 equinox, a time when its bright bands of rings are edge
on to the sun and nearly invisible as seen from Earth.
The rare
sight only occurs twice during Saturn's long orbit, which takes nearly 30 years
to complete. Earth also has two equinoxes a year (vernal and autumnal), with
the autumnal equinox to occur Tuesday.
Saturn's
rings are made up of individual chunks of ice that reach out nearly 85,000 miles
(140,000 km) from the center of the planet. In some spots they are only 30
feet (about 10 meters) thick, while others can reach towering heights, the
new images revealed.
The unique lighting conditions brought on by Saturn's
equinox and the sun illuminated the odd ripples and bumps among the planet's
rings, which
Cassini spied with its camera eyes. The staggering heights of some
formations could be discerned by the shadows they cast, researchers said.
"We
thought the plane of the rings was no taller than two stories of a modern-day
building and instead we've come across walls more than 2 miles [3 kilometers]
high," said Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porco at the Space Science
Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Isn't that the most outrageous thing you could
imagine? It truly is like something out of science fiction."
One ripple
rises nearly 2 1/2 miles (4 km) above the plane of Saturn's rings. The big blip
is caused by the gravitational tug of the planet's moon Daphnis. It is the
highest peak among the rings, mission managers said.
Scientists
estimate that there are about 35 trillion-trillion tons of ice, dust and rock locked up
in Saturn's rings. Cassini has been studying Saturn and its rings since it arrived
at the planet in 2004 and is currently in the middle of an extended mission
to observe the gas giant's equinox period.
"To
understand what we are seeing will take more time, but the images and data will
help develop a more complete understanding of how old the rings might be and
how they are evolving," said Linda Spilker, Cassini's deputy project
scientist at JPL.
advertisement
