If there really is something weird there...

Space/Science » in reply to The wake waves are not blurred

If there really is something weird there...

TB — 5/19/2009 4:45:55 PM (archived)

I expect at some point, they will take more pictures of it when it becomes possible to do so, and in more detail.

The "dust cloud" theory has some merit--no solid object shaped like that would assume that attitude in a free orbit. It would immediately flip so that the axis passed through Saturn's center. To take this to an extreme, even a spaceship that size would probably adopt that "vertical" attitude to keep from having to make constant attitude corrections to fight off tidal forces.

However, I can't think of any dust cloud solution that would create a cloud with such a sharply defined front and back.

I'm still calling some kind of "time exposure" effect. If it wasn't something mundane, where are all the planetary scientists climbing all over this?

The whole thread (35 posts)

An interesting "thing" in the 35 km wide Keeler gap around Saturn - Raoul - 5/16/2009 5:45:52 PM
- Two likely end-members - nick hoffman - 5/17/2009 4:52:52 AM
  - uhhh he said MEMBER (n/t) - lance - 5/19/2009 4:02:27 AM
  - re: Two likely end-members - ER - 5/17/2009 11:40:42 AM
    - An example of emergent order out of Chaos. - ER - 5/17/2009 2:43:57 PM
    - Try a FRACTAL avalanche... - nick hoffman - 5/17/2009 11:51:42 AM
- "Explanation"? - Robert - 5/16/2009 7:34:50 PM
- Finally! Justification for manned mission to Saturn! - ER - 5/16/2009 6:24:52 PM
  - Camera movement..? - Raoul - 5/16/2009 7:30:21 PM
- Um...are there three of them? (n/t) - TB - 5/16/2009 6:05:17 PM
  - Or is it emitting Whale sounds LOL! - REB - 5/18/2009 1:20:55 PM
  - re: Um...are there three of them? - Raoul - 5/16/2009 7:33:04 PM
    - "elongated thing" - Robert - 5/16/2009 7:37:29 PM
      - Ramalammadingdong, or, the Kirkwood Derby? - ER - 5/16/2009 9:53:59 PM
      - Saturn's worlds - Raoul - 5/16/2009 7:50:55 PM
        
        Why is the assumption that it is an actual cylinder? - Socrates II - 5/17/2009 4:04:49 PM
        
        Perhaps it's a dumbbell - podrock - 5/18/2009 3:00:08 AM
        
        We're just having fun with it. - TB - 5/17/2009 7:59:58 PM
        
        The wake waves are not blurred - Nick Hoffman - 5/18/2009 4:09:48 AM
        
        re: The wake waves ARE blurred - Nick Hoffman - 5/20/2009 3:22:29 AM
        
        re: The wake waves ARE blurred - TB - 5/20/2009 6:08:22 AM
        
        Tom, can you point to those later images? - Socrates II - 5/20/2009 1:21:44 PM
        
        If there really is something weird there... - TB - 5/19/2009 4:45:55 PM
        
        So perhaps we are seeing a moonlet coming apart? - Socrates II - 5/19/2009 6:16:48 PM
        
        True... but - Adam - 5/18/2009 7:51:34 AM
        
        Being inside the rings - Raoul - 5/17/2009 5:07:57 PM
        
        Good points, hemlock man. - ER - 5/17/2009 4:37:26 PM
        
        Yes I do - Socrates II - 5/17/2009 6:08:44 PM
        
        I think the guys on this thread have done a pretty good analysis - ER - 5/17/2009 6:35:41 PM
        
        Gravity and shape - Adam - 5/18/2009 3:43:39 AM
        
        "too coherent to be just a rubble pile-up" - ER - 5/18/2009 4:26:30 AM
        
        I share your fasination - Adam - 5/18/2009 7:50:24 AM
        
        Off the top of my head... - ER - 5/18/2009 11:31:53 AM
        
        Fair point... - Adam - 5/18/2009 11:56:08 AM
        
        All I can add... - ER - 5/18/2009 1:48:47 PM

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The whole thread (35 posts)