Highest highlights from Saturn

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:09:34 GMT

Astonishing! Correct me please but when they speak of density waves and ripples I get an image of the rings in some state of motion as whisps of waves propagate through them. Sort of like a dance of northern lights as an analogy. And on a very large scale that is rather inconceivable.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Gaetano Marano - Italy — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:57:36 GMT

.

poll:

when (do you think) humans will see the same image with their own eyes looking through a spaceship's window?

a) 30 years

b) 50 years

c) 100 years

d) more than 100 years

.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:46:02 GMT

Alan -- I'm listening (on my radio) to 'Scheherazade' and clicking through your (and Cassini's, of course) pictures of Saturn's Rings. Perfection.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Debbie Yarberry, Little Rock, AR — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:53:19 GMT

All this beauty can't be wasted just on humans. Kind of makes you wonder what another life forms idea of beauty is. Looking at what is in space makes me believe in life elsewhere. I can't wait for any & all views of space. QUESTION: Would life forms other than human know & appreciate beauty?

Highest highlights from Saturn

Des Emery, The Carborundum Chronicles, St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:40:51 GMT

Debbie Yarberry -- Your question reminds me of an old stf story, probably one of Ray Bradbury's Mars shorts. A team of astonauts, men and women, land on Mars and go outside exploring (this was written long before we had probes to do the grunt work for us) and at first see nothing but sand and rock. Eventually they happen upon a plant of some kind and the women are revulsed by it, spiny, twisted and odorous. They move on, the conversation continues between them, but nothing else is found and the landscape becomes more and more bleak, until they find another plant obviously the same kind, but not as ugly, They retrace their steps and come to the first plant again. This time the women stop and as they examine the plant they are no longer revolted by it, but see it differently, one of them even saying how much it reminds her of a rose from her home back on Earth.

Debbie, remember that beauty always lies in the eye of the beholder -- and lies, and lies, and lies. The viewer always sees what he wants to see.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Bob Allin, Houston, Tx — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 06:14:23 GMT

Debbie,

"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."

truly.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Des Emery, The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 02:45:36 GMT

Thomas Ashby wonders about density 'waves' in Saturn's Rings. My understanding is that all the rings are in constant motion, circling the planet, each ring having its own period and composition. The probability is that they formed originally as satellites or one satellite (not so likely) and broke up into fragments that continued in orbit, separating themselves by composition and size, etc., into what we see today. Various moonlets also formed then, some satisfying different rings properties and staying in that orbit. The size of the moonlet allows the speed of its orbit to increase so that it pulls some of the ring composite toward it as it passes that part of the ring, then allows that material to fall back into place, creating 'wave' ripples in the edges of the rings it separates by oscillation or resonance. The finer the material in the ring, the more it can behave like a liquid. I think. I don't think the author of the article meant 'density waves' as waves in gravity itself as the Northern Lights are seen as interacting with the magnetic field around Earth.D

Highest highlights from Saturn

Tim Co — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 16:15:39 GMT

re: QUESTION: Would life forms other than human know & appreciate beauty?

Would we recognize life forms that didn't?

Highest highlights from Saturn

Ayal Rosenthal, Tenafly, NJ — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:31:56 GMT

Wow! I'm surprised there's no space garbage orbiting the planet. I guess its just our planet that has to deal with that.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Daniel Fischer, Koenigswinter, Germany — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:06:15 GMT

Just for the record: a Saturn mosaic exactly as the one published 'officially' on March 1 was already published by amateur enthusiasts - working from the same raw images - on January 31 at

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000847 ...

Highest highlights from Saturn

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:17:48 GMT

Des...You sure pop up a lot on these blogs. Anyway, you did fairly answer my question but you went overboard. My question didn't require a link to magnetic fields and the earth. That part was simply a stab at analogy about a possible interpretation about waves that no one has ever experienced yet. Rhetorical in nature. I am well aware of the basic MO of the northern lights.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:59:27 GMT

Des..my question was more rhetorical than anything else. I am well aware of the interaction of solar wind with earths magnetic field to produce northern lights. But you did shed some light on the waves in Saturn's rings.

Highest highlights from Saturn

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:19:52 GMT

Thomas A. -- I didn't mean to read more into your original question, but I do tend to get carried away by my enthusiasm when I think I might have at least a partial answer, or can throw some light on the subject. Maybe that's why I show up so often. That, and the fact that I really like Alan's choice of topics for all of us to gnaw on. Plus, I am a latecomer to this world of blogging and I may be trying to catch up. Or I could be just a know-it-all, eager to reveal my ignorance for the world to see.D