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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Thu Oct 1, 2015, 11:05 AM Oct 2015

Something Strange Is Happening Inside Saturn

Unusual ripples in Saturn's rings are revealing the mysterious inner workings of the great gas giant. Planetary scientists and modelers are slowly picking apart that mystery.

Billions of particles race around Saturn's 170,000-mile-wide (273,600 kilometers) set of rings, which are mostly water ice with a smattering of rock. The rings are full of activity, including waves that ricochet outward in spiral patterns, most caused by the gravitational pull of Saturn's 62 moons. Waves caused by the moons, which orbit outside the rings' sphere, always travel outward.

But then there's a set of waves heading inward. That means there's something moving inside, too. [Video: Fly Through Space 'In Saturn's Rings']

Most scientists' models of Saturn and other gas giants assume the planet is pretty uniform — just a large gas envelope surrounding a small, dense core that's perhaps the size of Earth. But by studying the rings' waves, researchers are finding the picture much more complicated.

"The one thing that might produce this [series of waves] is that some sort of disturbance inside Saturn itself is spinning around with a period that's less than 7 hours," Phillip Nicholson, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in New York, told Space.com. Researchers first noticed hints of that disturbance in the 1990s, and Nicholson's team used more precise measurements to fully document the ring waves' structures, which reflect the oscillations of the planet within — sort of like recurring Saturn quakes.

more
http://www.space.com/30665-unraveling-saturn-ring-mystery.html

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Something Strange Is Happening Inside Saturn (Original Post) n2doc Oct 2015 OP
Fascinating newfie11 Oct 2015 #1
I agree n/t deutsey Oct 2015 #4
cool stuff -- love science saturnsring Oct 2015 #2
Something Wonderfull is Going to Happen Xipe Totec Oct 2015 #3
Interestingly, Saturn was the original target planet in 2001. Beartracks Oct 2015 #8
yea Wonderful, Bernie's gonna get help from our "visitors", who will help us fix Global Warming. MasonDreams Oct 2015 #13
I'm recommending everyone remain indoors the_chinuk Oct 2015 #5
Good plan skamaria Oct 2015 #11
Thank You For Sharing cantbeserious Oct 2015 #6
Sorry but I'm waiting for Rush's take Ratty Oct 2015 #7
Beat me to it! DemoTex Oct 2015 #9
Insert Uranus Joke Here. MindfulOne Oct 2015 #10
Hah! skamaria Oct 2015 #12
Weird wild stuff! Enthusiast Oct 2015 #14
Still long way to go. Gonzalo Oct 2015 #15

Beartracks

(12,761 posts)
8. Interestingly, Saturn was the original target planet in 2001.
Thu Oct 1, 2015, 12:58 PM
Oct 2015

In the book of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was written more or less concurrent with the movie being made, the monolith's signal was sent from the moon to Saturn, and that is where the Discovery mission was headed. However, it was changed to Jupiter in the movie because Kubrick wasn't happy with the Saturn special effects. In the book's sequels, Arthur C. Clarke carried forward with Jupiter in order to match the movie.

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MasonDreams

(756 posts)
13. yea Wonderful, Bernie's gonna get help from our "visitors", who will help us fix Global Warming.
Thu Oct 1, 2015, 02:35 PM
Oct 2015

w/o Bernie they'll be convinced that we aint worth saving

the_chinuk

(332 posts)
5. I'm recommending everyone remain indoors
Thu Oct 1, 2015, 12:38 PM
Oct 2015

I've seen SF movies and read big-concept SF novels that begin like this.
Things almost never turn out well for us in them.
Still, I'm going to continue planning for retirement … you just never know.

Ratty

(2,100 posts)
7. Sorry but I'm waiting for Rush's take
Thu Oct 1, 2015, 12:56 PM
Oct 2015

I don't trust that liberal NASA and their stupid announcements. It's probably another plot to push the global warming hoax down our throats. And ripples in the rings? Is that all!? Call me when a face appears or the planet turns silver or something really interesting.

Gonzalo

(13 posts)
15. Still long way to go.
Thu Oct 15, 2015, 03:46 PM
Oct 2015

" It's still pretty primitive, because we can only detect some of Saturn's operations"

I think almost nothing.

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