Ultraviolet Images From Cassini Reveal Detail of Saturn's Rings

Associated Press ^ | Jul 7, 2004 | Associated Press

[BenLurkin]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ultraviolet images of Saturn's rings taken by the international Cassini spacecraft may offer astronomers clues about the origin of the planet's shimmering halos of ice and debris, scientists said Wednesday. The images show more ice toward the outer part of the rings, possibly providing hints about how the rings have changed over time, according to mission scientists.

Saturn's rings are mostly ice but also contain other "dirty" material that astronomers want to investigate.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., released pictures Wednesday that depict the rings in shades of turquoise and red. The images were made by a $12.5 million instrument called the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, known as UVIS for short.

Although not what the eye would see, the false-color images increase contrast to bring out details, according to NASA.

Researcher Joshua Colwell, a UVIS team member and ring expert, created the color-enhanced images from data recorded by Cassini when it entered orbit.

Colwell found that the ultraviolet spectra show the rings vary in composition. The red indicates sparser ringlets believed to be made of particles that are "dirty" and possibly smaller than those in the denser, icier ringlets, which are shown in turquoise.

Cassini, a project of NASA, and the European and Italian space agencies, entered orbit around Saturn last week after a seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile journey to the outer solar system.

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On the Net:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

AP-ES-07-07-04 2338EDT

[lysie]

Whoo Hoo ping!!

[Two Thirds Vote Aye]

Thanks for the ping, lysie! Being an amateur astronomer myself, Cassini has been incredibly special to me!