Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Dec 4, 2004 2:22:04 GMT -6
I think that this is a cool image of one of Saturn's shepard moons Prometheus.
This from Universe Today:
(Dec 3, 2004) Cassini took this amazing photograph of Prometheus, one of Saturn's small shepherd moons as it's tugging material away from the planet's F ring. The F ring resolves into 5 separate strands, and you can see how tiny Prometheus has a stream of material flowing towards it. Prometheus is only 102 km (63 miles) across, and scientists still aren't sure exactly why it creates the different knots and breaks in the F ring.
More here: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/disrupting_rings.html?3122004
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I think that the moon draws out matter from the rings like taffy, and it "falls" back onto the host ring like snow on a winters day.
How nice.
This from Universe Today:
(Dec 3, 2004) Cassini took this amazing photograph of Prometheus, one of Saturn's small shepherd moons as it's tugging material away from the planet's F ring. The F ring resolves into 5 separate strands, and you can see how tiny Prometheus has a stream of material flowing towards it. Prometheus is only 102 km (63 miles) across, and scientists still aren't sure exactly why it creates the different knots and breaks in the F ring.
More here: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/disrupting_rings.html?3122004
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I think that the moon draws out matter from the rings like taffy, and it "falls" back onto the host ring like snow on a winters day.
How nice.