Posted on 09/09/2005 7:37:55 AM PDT by george76
New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings, which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time, have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years.
Among the most surprising findings is that parts of Saturn's innermost ring - the D ring - have grown dimmer since the Voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1981, and a piece of the D ring has moved 200 kilometres inward toward Saturn.
While scientists puzzle over what caused the changes, their observations could reveal something about the age and lifetime of the rings.
"I don't think Saturn's rings will disappear anytime soon, but this tells us how the rings are evolving and how long they might last, " deputy project scientist Linda Spilker said in a telephone interview from England.
Scientists are interested in Saturn's rings because they are a model of the disk of gas and dust that initially surrounded the sun. Studying them could yield important clues about how the planets formed from that disc 4.5 billion years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bush's fault?
Galaxy warming?
OMG, Oleg Cassini has a spacecraft? And he owns a Saturn?
OMG, Oleg Cassini has a spacecraft? And he owns a Saturn?
Bush's/Haliburton's/Chaney's/Rove's fault.
also their fault is the red spot on Jupiter. a cyclonic storm that has been raging for hundreds of years.
If there are measurable changes over such a short time (24 years), then that could indicate that the rings are either very young and still changing rapidly, or they are cyclical and dynamic.
Bush strikes again !!
Those Joooos again?
What are they saying about the hair around Uranus?
Yes, and it's a vuhry nahce wun.............
Good heavens, it's an orbiting debris field. Why would it stay the same over time?
Proof for a young earth?
Gravity's a bitch.
Beat me to it.
Global warming and clearly Bush's fault!
Don't forget ! URANUS is on the backside of Saturn .
If scientists can't explain this then it clearly shows that the formation and evolution of Saturn's rings must be governed by an intelligent designer. Theories of natural ring creation must be struck out of all school textbooks...
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