NASA Discovers Giant Ring Around Saturn 255
caffiend666 writes with news that scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a very large, previously unknown ring around the planet Saturn. According to NASA, if the ring were visible to the naked eye from Earth, it would cover a patch of sky roughly twice the angular diameter of the Moon.
"The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers. One of Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material. Saturn's newest halo is thick, too — its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring. ... The ring itself is tenuous, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. Spitzer's infrared eyes were able to spot the glow of the band's cool dust. The telescope, launched in 2003, is currently 107 million kilometers from Earth in orbit around the sun."
Good thing... (Score:5, Funny)
...it wasn't a giant ring around Uranus.
Yeah, yeah, just thought I'd get that out of the way early.
Re:Good thing... (Score:5, Funny)
Cool Dust (Score:5, Funny)
Just now? (Score:2, Funny)
NASA Discovers Giant Ring Around Saturn
They figured it out just now?
This proves it. The moon landings were fake.
Re:Good thing... (Score:3, Funny)
Because then you'd need to spend some $$$ on asteroid cream.
Re:Esoteric Naming System (Score:5, Funny)
Wonder what they will name this one, anyone good with sequence puzzles?
D#
Re:Esoteric Naming System (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, because the preparation for "H" feels good on the whole...
Re:Esoteric Naming System (Score:3, Funny)
Did you mean EBCDIC?
Is it bad science day already? (Score:5, Funny)
That's -193'C or 80 K if you're an actual scientist.
...has an inner radius of 5.9 million kilometers and extends to 17 million km.
That's "so huge it would take 1.03×10^29 Volkswagens to fill it"
JPL is a collection of buildings in California and does not speak. Perhaps the Oracle of JPL made this prophecy?
Unless the McDonalds in Charlottesville have changed recently, 10^29 Volkswagens would be a 'Large'. If you want supersized rings it's going to be an extra 49 cents.
Re:I thought that Saturn... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
I think they did!
Re:Esoteric Naming System (Score:3, Funny)
E++ ?
Re:Whats funny is my initial reaction to the headl (Score:5, Funny)
Is anyone looking for these invisible rings in other places?
Yes. Fools that they are.
Re:Is it bad science day already? (Score:3, Funny)
How many libraries of Congress is that?
Re:Esoteric Naming System (Score:3, Funny)
No! They shall call him Squishy, and he shall be theirs, he shall be their Squishy...
Re:Is it bad science day already? (Score:2, Funny)
Scientists can convert to Fahrenheit, but having seen the billions of dollars this costs the USA in mistakes, they generally don't.
Re:Good thing... (Score:4, Funny)