Wednesday, September 27, 2017

We learn today that Saturn's outer ring has "kittens."

Or in other words, your useless factoid of the day.



Saturn's kittens are a group of small clumps and baby moons, or moonlets, that occupy the planet's F ring. Like the rest of Saturn's rings, this thin outer ring is made up of countless particles that range in size. When enough of those particles bump into one another and stick together, they aggregate into larger clumps — and become eligible for a kitten name. 

Scientists have too much time on their hands. The next thing is they'll tell us that the rings consist of a sheet of small rocks, or in their parlance, "kibble."

Most of the clumps are transient. They come and go, and they're small, but some of them get bigger," and they may grow enough to eventually clear a gap through the ring, at which point they could be classified as actual moons.




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1 comment:

  1. It's time to send robot landers to the moons of Saturn and that submarine that they've been chattering about to the oceans of Titan.

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