APOD: Titan, Rings, and Saturn from Cassini (2011 Mar 08)

[bob(mc)]

My view of the 'Close Inspection' shows a dog with its head in the toilet. Is this intentional - or just a scew up?
bob(mc)

[neufer]

My view of the 'Close Inspection' shows a dog with its head in the toilet. Is this intentional - or just a scew up?
bob(mc)

<<Toilet of the Gods (Götterdämmerung) is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (English: The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Ring for short). It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring. The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war of the gods that brings about the end of the world. However, as with the rest of the Ring, Wagner's account of this apocalypse diverges significantly from his Old Norse sources.>>

[bystander]

<<Toilet of the Gods>>

Wasn't that a book by von Däniken.

[garry]

Of course the other perplexing question is exactly how the rings of Saturn are formed? Gravity is not the answer unless it is very selective.

[Chris Peterson]

Of course the other perplexing question is exactly how the rings of Saturn are formed? Gravity is not the answer unless it is very selective.

The formation of rings due to gravitational effects is very well understood, and not at all perplexing. The open question in the case of Saturn is the exact source of the material in the rings, but not the physics of the ring formation itself.

[cmb]

Floating a double-edged razor blade as a compass

"many times thinner, in relative proportion, than a razor blade." doesn't make any sort of sense. In proportion to what?

1 km in proportion to the overall size of the rings is thinner, relatively speaking, than the edge of a razor blade in proportion to its size.

Another gross understatement
(only understood by those who were shaving back in the 70's):

Double-edged razor blade 39 x 20 x 0.25 mm [125 to 1]

Rings of Saturn 300,000 x 300,000 x 1 km [300,000 to 1]

3 x 3 cm. sheet of Gold Leaf: 30,000 x 30,000 x 0.1 µm [300,000 to 1]

I thought the reference might be to the thickness of the edge of a razor rather than the body. I couldn't find a reference to the thickness of a razor's cutting edged, but surely it's in the µm or sub-µm range.