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An Evolutionary Ring

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Prometheus Bound to the F Ring at Saturn

F-ring at Saturn

What happens when you put a small world orbiting through an ethereal pair of dust and ice particle rings, all encircling the planet Saturn? You get intricate whirled and kinked structure in the rings, as seen in this image from the Cassini Mission’s imaging subsystem.

It’s all in the gravity of the situation. Prometheus (which is a natural satellite (moon) of Saturn off to the right of the F ring (center)) does a little dance with the F ring, getting closer and farther away over a period of just under 15 hours. As this little oddly-shaped moon gets close to the ring particles, its gravitational interaction draws out a stream of material. The stream then gets more misshapen as it orbits around Saturn, forming the graceful loops and curves we see in this image. The Cassini Mission pages have many more images of this phenomenon, which is yet another good reason to study a planetary system over long periods of time. Snapshots give us a frozen moment in time; long-term observations tell us a more detailed and exacting story of just how things change on both large and small scales in the solar system.

For more fascinating images from the Cassini Mission, visit the Cassini-Huygens mission web pages and do a little browsing. You’ll learn more about Saturn, its moons (particularly fascinating Titan), and those glittery, wonderful rings that have so captivated planetary scientists.

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From Sea to Methane Sea

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Titan Sea compared to Lake Superior on Earth
Titan Sea compared to Lake Superior on Earth

Woo-hoo! The Cassini spacecraft team released a radar image of what looks to be the largest body of liquid ever found on Titan’s surface. Titan, which orbits Saturn, is a chemically and geologically interesting world, and has been the subject of long-term study by the spacecraft since its arrival. The lake, which is likely made of liquid methane and/or ethane, covers about 100,000 square kilometers, which is larger than Lake Superior in the United States. Now, on Earth, seas are maintained through a constant cycle of water supply between the continents and water masses (the oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, etc.). Scientists think that on Titan, the same cycle is at work, but instead of water, the recycled material is methane (a hydrocarbon in great abundance in the outer solar system). And, there are more of these “seas” and lakes on Titan; so much so that the spacecraft teams are scheduling some additional radar studies of the surface to see them. Stay tuned!