Starship Asterisk*

I thought that the image of Saturn in IR made it almost look like a brown dwarf star. The new Cassini image is astounding too.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassi ... 08329.html

Looking at this picture raised a question in my mind... Since the rings are not solid and if it was possible to stand in their shadow, would it be dark or would some light filter through?

TIA,
Krys

Wow, that's pretty amazing! Look at the less-defined rings that extend far beyond the "easily observed" ones...

I would imagine that first, because they cast a shadow it would be comparatively as dark as an eclipse. The rings may be quite thin when seen edge on but they cover an expanse that is nearly as deep (Inner most ring to outer most ring) as the diameter of Saturn

I was thinking along the same path while looking at that picture.. It would be a full eclipse, but there would definitely be an erie view of the sun poking through..
If you were 'standing' in the right spot you could almost remain eclipsed from morning till night.. That would make for some interesting scenarios if we had something similar here on earth. But then again, so would a 10hr period of rotation!!

There is a great new image of the rings here
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassi ... 08329.html

BMAONE23 wrote:I would imagine that first, because they cast a shadow it would be comparatively as dark as an eclipse. The rings may be quite thin when seen edge on but they cover an expanse that is nearly as deep (Inner most ring to outer most ring) as the diameter of Saturn

Yes, also the sun only looks one tenth the size from Saturn, and has 6 times less magnitude.. So with those three things combined it would probably be a pretty dark eclipse.

Dear markc, Nereid,
I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this Saturn picture! I would like to ask you whether this glow can be associated with temperatures and in that case, what kind of temperatures can be found in Saturn's crust and interior. Thanks so much for your support and shall be looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Daniel

dont dear at me if you are going to break the rules. there's ongoing thread for this apod, is there any reason to start a new one? ps. for the record, anyone posting under "makc" nick is not affiliated with apod owners in any way.

Threads merged.

yeah, finally phpbb dudes made the buton for it so we don't have to lock these numerous threads any more. or is it some 3rd party mod?