Super huge saturn ring found!

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NASA's Spitzer telescope found a huge saturn ring.

NASA - NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn


Image (C) NASA. Tiff file downloaded and resized.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings. The ring is so diffuse that it reflects little sunlight, or visible light that we see with our eyes. But its dusty particles shine with infrared light, or heat radiation, that Spitzer can see.

This artist's conception simulates an infrared view of the giant ring. Saturn appears as just a small dot from outside the band of ice and dust. The bulk of the ring material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). The ring's diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side.
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NASA - Saturn's Infrared Ring

The full resolution tiff is around 4.5 MB. (incorrectly written 1 Mb)
 
that is nice to know.

solar system evolution is taking place right in front of our eyes. in a few thousand billion years, this whole wide spread ring will have condensed into another visible outer ring of Saturn. *sigh* the beauty of nature.
 
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