BBC reported, a colossal new ring has been identified around Saturn. The dusty hoop extends some 13 million km (8 million miles) from the planet, about 50 times further out into space than its more familiar rings.
The tenuous ring is probably made up of debris kicked off Saturn's moon Phoebe by small impacts. They think this dust then migrates towards the planet where it is picked up by another Saturnian moon, Iapetus.
The discovery would appear to resolve a longstanding mystery in planetary science: why the walnut-shaped Iapetus has a two-tone complexion, with one side of the moon significantly darker than the other.
"It has essentially a head-on collision. The particles smack Iapetus like bugs on a windshield," said Anne Verbiscer from the University of Virginia, US.
Observations of the material coating the dark face of Iapetus indicate it has a similar composition to the surface material on Phoebe.
The scale of the new ring feature is astonishing. Nothing like it has been seen elsewhere in the Solar System.
Read more at BBC News
Categories:
Astronomy
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