It may be difficult to gather that evidence, the spacecraft can only image the areas of interest when it is able, not when we'd like, and a time-series that meets our requirements is not in the cards. There is a good possibility that the next time we are in the area the object either won't be there, or will have morphed into some other shape. I agree your explanation of some variation of a drifting rubble-pile Daphnis interacting with ring material is the most plausible, but right now we don't even knowfor sure if that object IS Daphnis.
Also, those two black specks pointed out in the image are intriguing. They remind me of the foci of an ellipse as drawn in a textbook diagram, and I note you have seen the resemblance yourself. The easiest explanation is some kind of imaging artifact, but I can't come up with a convincing scenario.
Still, this is exciting. At the very least, we're seeing the rings as a dynamic, changing environment. Sort of a Newtonian avalanche in progress. Anything changing like this must also be evolving.
Space/Science » in reply to Two likely end-members
re: Two likely end-members
The whole thread (35 posts)
- An interesting "thing" in the 35 km wide Keeler gap around Saturn
- Two likely end-members
- "Explanation"?
- Finally! Justification for manned mission to Saturn!
- Um...are there three of them? (n/t)
- Or is it emitting Whale sounds LOL!
- re: Um...are there three of them?