From a casual perspective, Saturn's iconic rings look almost perfect. Made up of billions of particles of ice and rock, which are thought to have come from comets, asteroids or shattered icy moons, they appear to seamlessly encircle the gas giant like a huge vinyl record. Since they were discovered by Galileo in 1610, the rings have become an immense source of fascination for astronomers, with so many discoveries having been made about them since. A lot of our knowledge of the rings came from the Voyager mission in the early 1980s, which gave us the first close-up images of the planet's complex system.
As Voyager 1 got within 50 million kilometres (30 million miles) of Saturn on 6 October 1980, it allowed astronomers to see some unusual marks. Rather than venturing in the same direction as the rings, they appeared to cut across them, like rods radiating from the centre of a wheel. Scientists had never seen this before, and they were intrigued to discover what may have been causing them. Named 'spokes' they've caught the imagination of researchers ever since. "The spokes are fascinating because they were so unexpected when Voyager flew by - we expected pristine icy and maybe rocky pieces, but didn't expect to see these ethereal dusty features," Dr Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, tells All About Space. Yet there they were in all their glory, viewable again when Voyager 2 was within 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles) of Saturn on 22 August 1981. And so a mystery was born.
Denne historien er fra Issue 143-utgaven av All About Space UK.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 143-utgaven av All About Space UK.
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15 AUTUMN STARGAZING TARGETS
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MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE WHY IS VENUS SO DRY?
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THE MOON'S THIN ATMOSPHERE IS MADE BY CONSTANT METEORITE BOMBARDMENT
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INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL AND HOW TO BECOME A SPACE TOURIST
Having explored much of the Solar System, attention is now turning to the stars beyond
NASA'S PERSEVERANCE ROVER FINDS POSSIBLE SIGNS OF ANCIENT RED PLANET LIFE
Further analysis is needed, but a rock contains potential evidence that life once existed on Mars in the distant past
A NASA TELESCOPE MAY HAVE FOUND ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATING IN POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST EXPLOSION SINCE THE BIG BANG
The massive explosion was captured in 2022
Jameel Janjua "This is how we get to Mach 3”
Jameel Janjua made it to the bitter end in a Canadian government astronaut selection in 2009, but wasn't chosen. He found a different path to space through Virgin Galactic
BOEING NEEDS TO IMPROVE QUALITY CONTROL ON THE SLS MOON ROCKET
The NASA Inspector General's report finds serious quality-control issues affecting the upgraded version and expects cost overruns and delays
DARK ENERGY
THE MOST DOMINANT FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE IS ALSO ITS MOST MYSTERIOUS AND MOST UNANTICIPATED