Rings Discovered Around a Moon for the First Time 144
Riding with Robots writes "It turns out that one of the Ringed Planet's moons has rings of its own. The robotic spacecraft Cassini at Saturn has discovered that the icy moon Rhea is orbited by an extensive debris field and at least one ring, the first such system found. 'Many years ago we thought Saturn was the only planet with rings,' said one mission scientist. 'Now we may have a moon of Saturn that is a miniature version of its even more elaborately decorated parent.'"
Dumb question: Why are they 2 dimensional? (Score:5, Interesting)
I asked an astrophysicist I know and she said, 'that's the way the math works out'. Ah, thanks. Maybe someone here can be more enlightening.
Disclaimer: For all you nitpickers, I know there are more than three dimensions, and that the structures are not truly two-dimensional. Unless string theory applies here, I think we can leave those facts out of the discussion.
Funny timing (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is, indeed, a surprise discovery and hopefully there might be more material to study concerning this ring-type.
On a somewhat related-note: It is ironic that this moon has a ring whereas two moons hang out in Saturn's outer rings (they are called the Shepherd Moons).
Re:pff (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Funny timing (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, my version is heavily modded (and it's the alpha version), but I can see Apollo still orbiting good ol' Moon in Celestia. And witness a nice dawn together with Apollo. *sigh* it's a pity that you go through that military drill to become an astronaut. I surely would like to be one.
Essentially, that's the same as putting a satellite around Earth, as Earth orbits Sun like Moon orbits Earth.
What's even more interesting: you could put a spacecraft in the Lagrange-point between Earth and Moon, so it wouldn't move - well with respect to Earth and Moon, of course.
Re:pff (Score:2, Interesting)
Here ya go...well sort of:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2901 [nasa.gov]
Yeah, in mythology they were husband and wife (Score:5, Interesting)
You joke, but Saturn's (Cronus's) wife in mythology was named Rhea. A bit of a coincidence that.