New Ring Discovered Around Saturn 179
HunahpuMonkey writes "BBC News is reporting that 'scientists using the Cassini probe have found a new ring and one, possibly two, new objects orbiting Saturn.' The article also notes that the discoveries are in the planet's contorted F-ring region. The ring of new material seems to be associated with Saturn's moon Atlas."
LOTR 4 : Saturn's contorted F-ring region (Score:3, Funny)
Stereotypical old fashioned cash register: "Cha-ching!"
Re:LOTR 4 : Saturn's contorted F-ring region (Score:1)
Re:LOTR 4 : Saturn's contorted F-ring region (Score:1, Funny)
Yep. Just mail me at 74115.22986@compuserve.com and I'll send it to you.
reaching the point... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
Asimov's view... (Score:5, Insightful)
This seems good to me. Just call our satellite the Moon, call Mars's satellites Phobos and Deimos(sp?), Jupiter's Io, Europa, etc, and so on, and anything without a name or newly discovered can simply be called satellite.
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Asimov's view... (Score:5, Insightful)
And don't forget the Sun, which is also a sun.
Or you can call Earth, Terra (making us Terrans, w00t!), Terra's moon, Luna, and Terra's star Sol.
Clear as mud?
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:1, Insightful)
Still, you could stand on terra firma on other planets. And tides anywhere would be related to the lunar cycle. And there are solar systems. These words are still overloaded; using Latin doesn't help.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:2)
This is just translating it into Latin... (So much for your "w00t".)
It doesn't change a bit whether you call our moon Moon, Luna, or Mond. Moon, as in "a moon"/"ein Mond", has become a synonyme for (natural) satellite in probably all current languages. Same goes for Sun, Sol, or Sonne, and "a sun"/"eine Sonne".
Would even work in Latin: Sol is our sun, sol is a sun.
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:2, Informative)
Deimos is spelled correctly in your post btw.
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:1)
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:1)
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:1)
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Asimov's view... (Score:2)
While the rest of sci-fi calls it... (Score:2)
...Luna.
Then /everything/ goes by a name, and "moon" is reserved for satellites which obey certain principles (I don't remember what they are).
That's no moon... (Score:1)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:4, Funny)
Tiny bits of flotsam circling Saturn and other (equally beautiful) planets are perfectly good "moons" too, you bastards! I hope that if there are beings on the other planets, they come and blast our smug, bloated moon into millions of wonderfully diverse bits!
Mod parent up +555555555 insightful, please!
Re:reaching the point... (Score:2)
And since it's the scientists that are in charge of naming these objects, you have to put up with it whether you like it or not.
MUHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Re:reaching the point... (Score:2)
For anyone who is interested, there actually is a Woman [tufts.edu] in the Moon. A prim and proper Victorian lady, in fact. She's quite clear in binoculars, and actually looks a lot more lifelike than the Man.
If you want to see some sillier figures in the Moon, here's another link [hiwaay.net].
Re:reaching the point... (Score:2)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:1)
damn.
Re:reaching the point... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:5, Funny)
Debris are made of rock
Moons are made of cheese
Re:reaching the point... (Score:1)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:1)
Re:reaching the point... (Score:2)
Wensleydale [amazon.com], specifically.
Re:reaching the point... (Score:1)
Footfall (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Footfall (Score:2)
I wondered if I was the only one who thought of that book when reading about the F-ring. Just finished re-reading it a couple weeks ago, too. Now I need to find that list of which characters in the book are supposed to be which sci-fi authors in real life...
F-ring (Score:4, Funny)
Saturn must be broke (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Saturn must be broke (Score:2)
And now my wife wants me to sell my Powerbook to pay for it!
Previously-unseen objects out by Saturn??? (Score:5, Funny)
~Philly
Re:Previously-unseen objects out by Saturn??? (Score:2)
A Bugg
Darn right it's coming true. (Score:1)
More Debris (Score:1)
a new ring around Saturn? wow! (Score:4, Funny)
I think I'll name it 'George.'
Discoveries piling on. (Score:1)
Don't let your attention waver! (Score:2, Funny)
(no, I don't have a tinfoil hat; yes, it's a joke)
F-Ring? (Score:1)
Theorists Might be Right (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Theorists Might be Right (Score:2)
There's an awful lot of stuff orbiting Saturn; much of it's in very small pieces, but there's a wide range of sizes all the way up to the few big moons that everyone knows. But AIUI there's no inherent difference between the very small bits and the medium-sized bits, so calling some of them 'moons' and some 'ring material' is just an arbitrary distinction, isn't it?
But then, the same applies to the rings, too. There are no physical rings, just lost of chun
Re: Theorists Might be Right (Score:2)
LOL! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:LOL! (Score:1)
*Earth* is gonna have a ring... (Score:5, Insightful)
Earth is going to have a ring of space crap around it in a few years...
In other news...AOL announced a plan to send thousands of free hours into space. They will be delivered by sending up junk in the shuttle @ 1.5M a launch.
Re:*Earth* is gonna have a ring... (Score:1, Interesting)
It already does [nasa.gov] (go to the the J-Track 3D section).
Change it (Score:5, Funny)
Saturn, (Score:2)
More sinister however..... (Score:5, Funny)
THE dept!!! Scary....
Who are they!? What is their agenda!?
First rule ... (Score:2)
First rule of 'the dept', you do not talk about 'the dept'.
=)
Atlas Shrugged (Score:2)
speaking of stellar objects (Score:1)
Why the hell do they call them "hemorrhoids"??
Why don't they call them "ASSteroids" ??
Are you sure these are "new"? (Score:2)
Does the fact that we hadn't seen them before make them new? I'm going to visit that new continent called Europe next year...
That's no moon... (Score:3, Funny)
kulakovich
Re:Not another one... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not another one... (Score:2)
LS
Re:Not another one... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not another one... (Score:2)
Or how about, "Saturn has trillions of moons, most of them smaller than a home refrigerator."
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
In fact, there's an experiment we did in undergrad Physics lab involving small metal balls that allows you to measure the gravitational constant (G in g = GM/(r*r)) by essentially detecting the force of attracti
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Informative)
The Slashdot Definition (Score:2)
Let's adopt this definition at Slashdot.
It's a moon if it's big enough that it's own gravity and mass forms itself into a spherical shape.
Phobos... obviously a big rock.
Europa... a moon.
Re:The Slashdot Definition (Score:1)
Re:The Slashdot Definition (Score:2)
-aiabx
Re:The Slashdot Definition (Score:2)
So you would consider the earth to be a moon? Or is your definition incomplete?
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2, Informative)
That being said, I'm pretty sure any body which naturally has a regular orbit around a planet is considered a moon, though you must get into a size limit somewhere otherwise every speck of dust in Saturn's rings could be considerd a separate "moon".
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Informative)
"moon" means natural satellite.
"Moon" means Earth's moon.
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
And therefore all of the ring particles are moons.
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
I had a long argument with a coworker over the topic of whether the Moon spun. The Moon always presents the same face to the Earth, says he, therefore it never spins. Says I, yes, but from the perspective of the Sun the Moon changes faces so it does spin.
No, the Moon doesn't spin.
Yes it does.
No it doesn't.
Okay, here's an apple and an orange make the "Moon" go 'round the "Earth" and always present the same face to the Earth.
See,
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1, Informative)
Is it moving, yes. Its orbiting, it just happens to be orbiting at the right distance such that its period is the same as the earths rotation. Ask your coworker about that one
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
You could run through the demonstratation again, but after a few turns remove the earth object and continue spinning the moon object. Of course you'd need to be in a masochistic mood to continue arguing with such a person, lol.
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Re:Stupid Question (Score:1, Informative)
Note that after 2 such twists, his arms may no longer be twisted!
Try it with a cup full of water, holding the handle outward. Turn it clockwise, once over your arm, and the second time under your elbow (keeping it upright the whole time). Interestingly and amazingly, the cup stays upright, and watching the handle makes two full 360% turns; yet your arm isn't twisted!
(a girl that danced in a SF nightclub with flaming batons
Re:Stupid Question (Score:4, Informative)
uh, yeah, but that's still spinning.
And you're assuming that the person isn't sitting down and can get their torso up and around the object. And the 720 degree full spin is just because of additional spatial dimensions which the object has to turn through. The 3-space representation of the object is just a projection of its higher dimensional self. Ofcourse this can be argued to exist as pure conceptual metaphor since spin-space can be argued to not actually exist... ofcourse the definition of actually is open for debate.
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:5, Funny)
How the heck did you look up satellite [m-w.com] in the dictionary and still manage to spell it wrong?
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
By that definition, the Earth is a moon of the sun...
Stupid Answer (Score:5, Funny)
Large body made out of cheese which cows like to jump over.
Re:Stupid Question (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
Re:Stupid Question (Score:3, Funny)
When the ring around uranus is visible, that's mooning.
Re:Stupid Question (Score:2)
Who the heck modded this as "+1 Interesting"? Wasn't "+1 Let's laugh at this guy's ignorance" available?
Seriously though, I saw a project [fourmilab.ch] mentioned on Slashdot [slashdot.org], where a guy demonstrates how any object has a gravitational pull.
I ^H^H My son did this experiment for his science fair, and it was way cool. Basically you attempt to neutralize the effects of the Earth's pull, and you can wa
Re:Stupid Question (Score:1)
Damn, I did it again. (Score:1)
Ballmer: "Developers, Developers, Developers"
Re:Saturn's moons (Score:1, Funny)
Never dug into the site that far. (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder how much of the equipment in space runs Linux?
To quote Futurama... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Jokes? (Score:1, Funny)
WOuld Klingons on earth be "anti-government polyps"?
I remember back around 1990 seeing a new Saturn with the license plate:
HazRngs
or maybe
HzRings
It was/is cute pun on Saturn Has Rings and the car being a Saturn, heheh.
Now, these:
http://www.thecommentarybox.co.uk/issue45/kicka s s. htm
Re:Your kidding right? (Score:2)