by Chris Peterson » Mon May 31, 2010 2:25 pm
owlice wrote:If you moved from this "sideways" view to the left and around so that Saturn was behind Epimetheus and you're not exactly in the ring plane, you'd see different pieces of different rings... in front of Saturn.
You need to be careful with this image, though. It makes it appear as if Epimetheus is above the F-ring, and it is actually well outside it (i.e. this isn't a perfectly "sideways" image). Also, because the moon's orbit is slightly inclined to the ring plane, it has two crossings of that plane, so its vertical distance in any image depends on when that image was made.
But I do think your overall assessment is correct. I was looking at a high resolution image of Saturn's ring system, trying to figure out what rings are in this image. I think the lower section must be the F-ring, although it doesn't seem to have the correct structure. The more upper (inner) rings in the image really don't look like the A-ring, which should be next. They could also be part of the F-ring. It is hard to determine scale here; the lack of any features on Saturn suggests a very narrow field of view. Also, the rings are partly backlit by Saturn, which makes them appear different than when forward lit by the Sun alone.
[quote="owlice"]If you moved from this "sideways" view to the left and around so that Saturn was behind Epimetheus and you're [i]not[/i] exactly in the ring plane, you'd see different pieces of different rings... in front of Saturn.[/quote]
You need to be careful with this image, though. It makes it appear as if Epimetheus is above the F-ring, and it is actually well outside it (i.e. this isn't a perfectly "sideways" image). Also, because the moon's orbit is slightly inclined to the ring plane, it has two crossings of that plane, so its vertical distance in any image depends on when that image was made.
But I do think your overall assessment is correct. I was looking at a high resolution image of Saturn's ring system, trying to figure out what rings are in this image. I think the lower section must be the F-ring, although it doesn't seem to have the correct structure. The more upper (inner) rings in the image really don't look like the A-ring, which should be next. They could also be part of the F-ring. It is hard to determine scale here; the lack of any features on Saturn suggests a very narrow field of view. Also, the rings are partly backlit by Saturn, which makes them appear different than when forward lit by the Sun alone.