During Cassini’s ‘Grand Finale’ plunge into Saturn’s innermost ring and upper atmosphere in 2017, the mass spectrometer aboard the probe sampled chemicals at altitudes between Saturn’s rings and atmosphere.
Credit: NASA
A new study based on data from the final orbits last year of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the rings of Saturn – some of the most visually stupendous objects in the universe – are far more chemically complicated than previously was understood. Political humorist Mark Russell once joked, “The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.”
Well, there’s no luggage, it turns out...
Read More
Recent Comments