Data collection by NASA s Cassini spacecraft during eclipses of the sun by Saturn have revealed new information about the planet s iconic ring pattern.
Lancaster UK (SPX) Nov 16, 2023 -
A Lancaster University PhD student has measured the optical depth of Saturn s rings using a new method based on how much sunlight reached the Cassini spacecraft while it was in the shadow of the rin
<p>A Lancaster University PhD student has measured the optical depth of Saturn’s rings using a new method based on how much sunlight reached the Cassini spacecraft while it was in the shadow of the rings.</p>
<p>The research, led by Lancaster University in collaboration with the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.</p>
<p>The NASA-ESA Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 and reached Saturn in 2004, carrying out the most extensive survey of the planet and its moons to date. The mission ended in 2017 when Cassini plunged into the Saturnian atmosphere, after diving 22 times between the planet and its rings.</p>
<p>Τhe main rings, which extend up to 140,000 km from the planet, but have a maximum thickness of only 1km, are to disappear from view from Earth by 2025. In that year the rings will be tilted edge-on to Earth, making it almost impossible to view t