Comments on: Spitzer Sees Giant Ring Around Saturn

By: RUF

RUF — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:05:16 +0000

So this may account for the colour on Iapetus, anyone think it may have something to do with Iapetus' "rindge?"

By: sukye

sukye — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:16:47 +0000

haha I mentioned this news to UT!

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# sukye Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 8:38 pm

hey dont forget this news
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2009-19/release.shtml
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By: Manu

Manu — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:59:19 +0000

@HeadAroundU: use Firefox? get NoScript add-on, and disable google.com. I did that, hate google intrusiveness. What business of theirs is my language?

By: Trippy

Trippy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:11:19 +0000

Nasa version:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20091006.html

By: HeadAroundU

HeadAroundU — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:58:58 +0000

Complaints:
1. How do I turn off google translate toolbar from UT?
2. Use Celsius instead of Kelvins.

Looks like big news.

By: Brian Sheen

Brian Sheen — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:14:37 +0000

I assume that if Phoebe is retrograde then it is a captured moon.

Do we know or guess what the dust is made of is it a basalt like the maria on our Moon?

By: William928

William928 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:05:49 +0000

Would this ring, due to its faintness, be similar in composition to those around Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune? Another spectacular discovery!

By: SuperKevin

SuperKevin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:36:32 +0000

I'm sure we'll find other rings like this around other planets, then decide to call them Dwarf Rings

By: Manu

Manu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:45:28 +0000

Well, I can't access the Nature paper anymore, so I can't check… I do remember reading that, but I might have had it wrong in the morning brain fog…

The ring was also observed at 70µ, so Herschel should be able to see it.

By: Trippy

Trippy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:09:07 +0000

Torbjorn:
As it is in the original NASA press release (I have a comment awaiting moderation with a couple of relevant links in it).

By: Torbjorn Larsson OM

Torbjorn Larsson OM — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:57:43 +0000

Manu, what do you mean "the ring is not tilted"? Over on BBC Verbiscer says there's a 27 degree tilt with respect to Saturn's equatorial plane. (In the audio interview.)

By: chrismannn

chrismannn — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:53:01 +0000

from a purely scientific point of view… how absoblinkinglutely awesome!
What else dont we know?
Good work Spitzer !!!

By: Manu

Manu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:00:59 +0000

I do hope Herschel will take a look, but its shortest wavelength band being 55µ, I have no idea if it can actually see anything there.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:29:54 +0000

The Scientific American website reports that these observations were performed only three months before the coolant ran out on Spitzer's 24micron MIPS camera. They mention that followup observations will require a new IR telescope to observe in the 24 micron band. Herschel, JWST anyone?

WRT material being transferred from Phoebe to parts of Iapetus, hasn't the dark material on both moons been found to have similar spectra?

By: Manu

Manu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:12:27 +0000

Major news! =8D

I went to Nature's website and read the paper, there is a big discrepancy with the image here (and elsewhere):
the ring is not tilted, it is equatorial but thick (40+ Saturn radii), thanks to particle orbit precession, and Phoebe orbits inside it.
The original Spitzer images are displayed, no wonder all we see elsewhere is an artist's work!

There is no evidence yet for the retrograde particle orbits.

And this: "Dynamical studies predict that small irregular saturnian satellites have struck Phoebe several times over the age of the Solar System14, providing known
historic sources of material, much of which remains in the ring today." (I was wondering why only a small distant satellite would make such a ring).

On the funny side: this morning, AFP (Agence France Presse, through Google News) wrote it was a ring around Phoebe… Now corrected. The science editor was probably late today.