Random | April 04, 2011 | 1 comment

Saturn's Mysterious Rings at Their Brightest Today

source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/04/news-flash-saturns-mysterious-rings-at-their-br...

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GoldenHeart
Today, April 3rd, Saturn will be "at opposition"--opposite the sun in the skies of Earth. Whenever this event occurs, Saturn's rings surge in brightness, due to the Seeliger effect, also known as the opposition effect. Saturn's rings are made of water ice, with some contamination from dust and other chemicals, ranging in size from dust to objects as high as the Rocky Mountains. Sunlight directly backscattered from those ice particles causes the ring system to shine with greater intensity for the few days around opposition.
LINK : http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/04/news-flash-saturns-mysterious-rings...
  1. groups:
    Random,   Science,   Space,   Learn,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Space,  Planets,  Saturn,  Mysterious Rings
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1 comment // Saturn's Mysterious Rings at Their Brightest Today

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