Thursday, October 8, 2009

New Ring Discovered Around Saturn, Largest One Yet

There is no good picture of the ring yet because it is to dark, but this artist's conception gives you an idea of just how massive the ring is.

Picture embedded below. (from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6269027/New-ring-discovered-around-Saturn-is-the-largest-in-the-Solar-system.html)

An artist's rendering released by NASA shows the biggest but never-before-seen ring around Saturn, spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzer-20091007a.html

"The artist's conception simulates an infrared view of the giant ring. Saturn appears as just a small dot from outside the band of ice and dust. The bulk of the ring material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). The ring's diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side."

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