Comments on: Beautiful and mysterious Saturn

By: wayne

wayne — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 20:20:49 +0000

LocalFluff– thanks for that link.

By: Localfluff

Localfluff — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 19:38:49 +0000

This SETI lecture from last year is about how the rings of Saturn have been formed and why they are so weirdly structured as they are. Well, some seemingly good ideas about it at least.
http://www.seti.org/weeky-lecture/saturns-rings-accessible-astrophysical-disk

By: BSJ

BSJ — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 17:11:31 +0000

Must just be too far away to see ‘small’ scale features like that.

Sort of like the most recent Juno image. I thought there would be some bumpiness in the cloud tops. But I didn’t see any…

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 16:55:28 +0000

In reply to BSJ. BSJ: Ah, I think you've hit it on the head. I should have thought of that. It is the shadow of Saturn projected by the Sun onto the rings. Still, one wonders why the shadow of the cloud tops of a gas giant is so sharply defined. Shouldn't it be softer?

By: BSJ

BSJ — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 16:35:22 +0000

Could is just be the shadow?

If the Sun is more or less directly behind the probe, the shadow should project more or less directly away from it.