Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Science news

NASA telescope discovers giant ring around Saturn

Okay - my first take on this: "Uh... didn't we know about Saturn's rings already?... in fact, didn't the ancient Greeks know about Saturn's rings?? We need a NASA telescope to tell us this???"

Figuring my first take must be wrong, I read the article.
Yep - my first take was wrong!
PASADENA, Calif. – The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday.

The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said.
Here's the "artist's rendering":

No comments:

Post a Comment