1. gregladen
  2. Saturn is connected electrically to Enceladus

Saturn is connected electrically to Enceladus

By gregladen on April 22, 2011.

i-6f77fe48e9a054f2dea29978be7ac072-pia13765-43-thumb-500x375-64016.jpg

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is releasing the first images and sounds of an electrical connection between Saturn and one of its moons, Enceladus. The data collected by the agency's Cassini spacecraft enable scientists to improve their understanding of the complex web of interaction between the planet and its numerous moons. The results of the data analysis are published in the journals Nature

Scientists previously theorized an electrical circuit should exist at Saturn. After analyzing data that Cassini collected in 2008, scientists saw a glowing patch of ultraviolet light emissions near Saturn's north pole that marked the presence of a circuit, even though the moon is 240,000 kilometers (150,000 miles) away from the planet.

The patch occurs at the end of a magnetic field line connecting Saturn and its moon Enceladus. The area, known as an auroral footprint, is the spot where energetic electrons dive into the planet's atmosphere, following magnetic field lines that arc between the planet's north and south polar regions.

"The footprint discovery at Saturn is one of the most important fields and particle revelations from Cassini and ultimately may help us understand Saturn's strange magnetic field," said Marcia Burton, a Cassini fields and particles scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It gives us the first visual connection between Saturn and one of its moons."


Read the rest here

Tags
Cosmos

More like this

Cool Picture of Quadruple Tranist of Saturn
Here is the imagery, and below is some info for you Saturn moon watchers. On Feb. 24, 2009, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took a photo of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet. The pictures were taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, developed and built by NASA's…
Cassini Begins Transmitting Data From Enceladus Flyby
This from JPL: "Shorty after 9:03 p.m. Pacific Time, the Cassini spacecraft began sending data to Earth following a close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. During closest approach, Cassini successfully passed only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface of the tiny moon. Cassini's signal…
Sirens of Titan Less Impossible than Previously Thought
Just so you know, scientists do not seem to be able to detect the difference between a 3 foot and a 30 foot deformation of the surface of a planetoid body that is about one and a half billion kilometers away, and we know this because NASA's Cassini space ship had to actually go all the way to one…
Cassini Pinpoints Source of Jets on Saturn's Moon Enceladus
This sweeping mosaic of Saturn's moon Enceladus provides broad regional context for the ultra-sharp, close-up views NASA's Cassini spacecraft acquired minutes earlier, during its flyby on Aug. 11, 2008. See PIA11114 and PIA11113 for the higher resolution views. This false-color mosaic combines…

Velikovsky is vindicated!

is it even possible for a planet to be connected to somethin that sounds fake? when I read this blog all i see in every word is lie lie lie. can YOU even PROVE that this is true? well can you?

By space kid (not verified) on 22 Apr 2011 #permalink

I've looked at telescopes at these planets and I've never seen that big square thing.

No surprises here. Io, which is a major source of plasma in Jupiter's magnetosphere, has a similar footprint in Jupiter's auroral region. So do the other Galilean satellites, less strongly because they do not emit as much plasma as Io does. Enceladus is a major plasma source in Saturn's magnetosphere (this part actually was a surprised when it was announced), so it's not a stretch to think that it might have such a footprint.

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 22 Apr 2011 #permalink

is it even possible for a planet to be connected to somethin that sounds fake? when I read this blog all i see in every word is lie lie lie. can YOU even PROVE that this is true? well can you?

Fuckin' magnetic fields, how do they work?

By feralboy12 (not verified) on 23 Apr 2011 #permalink

Saturn is connected electrically to Enceladus

This was a very interesting post. Iâm glad you care enough about the planets to share this with us. I had no idea that the planets had their own moons that is a good thing to know. So now that you know this, does it mean we may have found a new source of solar energy?

If you could stick a big antenna up into the upper atmosphere it could draw huge amounts of energy. But it is an engineering impossibility.

@patrick

My God, it's full of 8-bit.