image of Saturn\'s narrow and contorted F ringSuch a phenomenon has never previously been detected in any planetary ring. Cameras onboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed images of Saturn’s narrow and contorted F ring. Thanks to Nature’s 27th October 2005 issue. As reported by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the f ring continues to puzzle astronomers, as they continuously exhibit unusual structures, like “knots,” “kinks,” and “clumps”. But, the gravitational effect of the inner shepherding satellite, Prometheus, appears to produce regular patterns on the ring including a series of channels or gores and ’streamers’ of particles that temporarily link the ring to the satellite, as seen in the Cassini images. The findings of the Imaging Science Subsystem team show that channels and streamers can be understood in terms of a simple gravitational interaction as Prometheus approaches and recedes from the F ring every 14.7 hours. Over time, with more extreme perturbations, Prometheus is expected to drive deeper into the F ring, culminating in December 2009 when the two orbits approach their minimum separation.



Via: Spaceref, Science Daily