[BigCinBigD]

[GeronL]

cool! Now we get to watch as the rings reform themselves and if the “shephard” moonlets have anything to do with it

[Carling]

But oh, isn’t that the joy of science?

It used to be. Now, Al Gore will tell you the debate is over as he makes up the answer to his own question.

[parsifal]

Whatever it is, it’s beautiful.

parsy, who has never driven a Saturn.

[Talisker]

My first inclination ...is to say that there isn’t enough material in the rings to create what amounts to a hydrodynamic wake behind a moving object. When you move through air you leave a wake behind you, but there are gazillions of particles per cubic centimeter in the Earth’s air at sea level. I would think that even in Saturn’s ring, the density of particles wouldn’t be enough to support a phenomenon like this.

Which leave some kind of propellant exhaust or effect, eh? And either it happens all the time, or it was well aware of Cassini's camera at the gazillion-to-one moment the shutter clicked, and so wanted to be seen.

Oh, also, it would be interesting to note the size of the object - you can actually see Ring curvature in the photo, which would make the object, according to my calculations, what we in the biz call a big mofo.

[SeeSharp]

A disturbance in Saturn's rings was a plot device in Larry Niven's Footfall.

[LukeL]

Phil Plait is a very arrogant liberal atheist who spent many posts bashing Sarah Palin and John McCain while praising Obama for being pro science. He finds every opportunity to bash Christians and anyone who believes in anything that science can’t prove (UFOs ghosts, god, faith healing, accupuncture etc)

[wastedyears]

Maybe it’s something Microsoft-related.

[Nateman]

My take is something crashed into ring material as it was passing through. This heated everything up creating a glowing trail that is casting a shadow.

[DemforBush]

One of the first really cool things to happen to me in college (er, that didn’t involve coeds or drinking), was in an Astronomy class I took my first semester. The prof took a bunch of us up to the observatory after class and let us look through the telescope. I got a really choice look at Saturn. Very cool stuff.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Blame it on Bush!

[FrogMom]

Ring ping!

[snowsislander]

[dragonblustar]

[Robert A Cook PE]

We’ve recently had another Jupiter collision - as large as those burn-points/clouds which came from the Shoemaker-Levy’s collision.

Now? Looks like Saturn got clobbered.

[Redleg Duke]

Bush and Cheny’s Haliburton Hurricane Machine is out of control!

[autumnraine]

Who is this funny, yet brainy (and very very attractive with those two qualities) author?

[roaddog727]

” Without doing a full-blown hydrodynamic calculation it’s hard to say what’s possible and what isn’t. Cassini scientists are currently doing just that, in order to better understand what this odd image is trying to tell us.

More likely Gravitic effects causing the perturbation than hydro-dynamic.

But hey, I’m just a dumb-a@@ engineer.

[AFreeBird]

AstroB4L8r

[ForGod'sSake]

Whoa, did you see that???!!!