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Largest ring around Saturn discovered
NASA space telescope discovers largest ring around Saturn_English_Xinhua
" "This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." Verbiscer; Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park; and Michael Skrutskie, of the University of Virginia are authors of a paper about the discovery to be published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. " http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_12190222.htm I wonder if they mean it would look like two full moons from Saturn's surface, or from here on Earth's surface? If from Earth's surface, that's one truly colossal find. Yousuf Khan |
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Largest ring around Saturn discovered
Yousuf Khan wrote:
NASA space telescope discovers largest ring around Saturn_English_Xinhua " "This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." Verbiscer; Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park; and Michael Skrutskie, of the University of Virginia are authors of a paper about the discovery to be published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. " http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_12190222.htm I wonder if they mean it would look like two full moons from Saturn's surface, or from here on Earth's surface? If from Earth's surface, that's one truly colossal find. Yousuf Khan It would seem to be as seen from Earth. The article claims that the ring has outer radius at 12 million kilometers from Saturn (presumably Saturn's "surface"). Saturn's radius is about 58200 km. So the total width presented is w = 2 * (Rsat + Rring) = 2.41 x 10^7 km = 0.16 AU Saturn orbits at about 9.54 AU, Earth at 1 AU, so the minimum distance betwixt the two is about 8.54 AU. The angular size of the ring as seen from Earth would then be about atan(0.16/8.54) = 1.07 degrees which is about twice the angular width of the Moon or Sun as seen from Earth. |
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Largest ring around Saturn discovered
On Oct 7, 8:34*am, "Greg Neill" wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote: I wonder if they mean it would look like two full moons from Saturn's surface, or from here on Earth's surface? If from Earth's surface, that's one truly colossal find. Yousuf Khan It would seem to be as seen from Earth. * Truly colossal! Here's another article about it, and it has an illustration showing the relative size of it with Saturn. Astronomers Discover Massive Saturn Ring - National News Story - WKMG Orlando http://www.clickorlando.com/national...5/detail.html# Yousuf Khan |
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Largest ring around Saturn discovered
On Oct 7, 1:10*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:
NASA space telescope discovers largest ring around Saturn_English_Xinhua " * *"This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn." Verbiscer; Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park; and Michael Skrutskie, of the University of Virginia are authors of a paper about the discovery to be published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. "http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/07/content_12190222.htm I wonder if they mean it would look like two full moons from Saturn's surface, or from here on Earth's surface? If from Earth's surface, that's one truly colossal find. * * * * Yousuf Khan Here's another article with a video about the new rings. Good animations. BBC NEWS | Programmes | World News America | New ring detected around Saturn http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...ca/8296066.stm Yousuf Khan |
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