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Persephone Milk · 10-07-2009, 08:08 AM

Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn - CNN.com

Quote:

(CNN) -- Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it. The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).

Ariane · 10-07-2009, 08:35 AM

We have sent at least four probes to Saturn, I'm surprised we did not accidentally run into it then.

The article mentions it is not very dense at all, so easy to miss.

Quantum Destiny · 10-07-2009, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariane

We have sent at least four probes to Saturn, I'm surprised we did not accidentally run into it then.

The article mentions it is not very dense at all, so easy to miss.

Yes, it is very easy to miss. To get an idea of the density: if all the particles in the ring were roughly 10 µm (ten millionths of a metre) in size, there is only about 20 of them in every square kilometre.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ature08515.pdf

10-07-2009, 08:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ariane Senior Member Reticulating Splines Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 534 My Mood:	We have sent at least four probes to Saturn, I'm surprised we did not accidentally run into it then. The article mentions it is not very dense at all, so easy to miss. __________________ ArianeB's Life in the Metaverse and Blog

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