12/21/2023 0 Comments Saturn through telescopeThis makes a seasonal variation in the solar heating of the ring particles. Since the rotation axis of Saturn inclines compared to its orbital plane around the Sun, the ring opening angle to the Sun changes over a 15-year cycle. The team concluded that the “inversion” of the brightness of Saturn’s rings between 20 was caused by the seasonal change in the ring opening angle to the Sun and Earth. The team investigated images of Saturn’s rings taken in April 2005 with COMICS, and found that the Cassini Division and the C ring were fainter than the B and A rings at that time, which is the same contrast to what was seen in the visible light. It turns out that the Cassini Division and the C ring are not always brighter than the B and A rings, even in the mid-infrared. The difference in the emission process explains the inverse brightnesses of Saturn’s rings between the mid-infrared and the visible-light views. Therefore, the dense populations of particles in the B and A rings make them seem bright in the visible wavelengths, while the Cassini Division and the C ring appear faint. On the other hand, in the visible light, observers see sunlight being reflected by the ring particles. The team concluded that this was because the particles in the Cassini Division and C ring are more easily heated by solar light due to their sparser populations and darker surfaces. The team measured the temperatures of the rings from the images, which revealed that the Cassini Division and the C ring are warmer than the B and A rings. Mid-infrared spectrometry measures thermal emission, where warmer particles appear brighter. The radial brightness contrast of Saturn’s rings is the inverse between the two wavelength ranges. The visible light image was taken on Mawith the 105-cm Murikabushi telescope at Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory. Comparison of the images of Saturn’s rings in the 2008 view in the mid-infrared (left) and the visible light (right). This brightness contrast is the inverse of how they appear in the visible light, where the B and A rings are always brighter than the Cassini Division and the C ring. The 2008 image shows that the Cassini Division and the C ring are brighter in the mid-infrared wavelengths than the B and A rings appear to be. The Cassini Division separates the B and A rings. Saturn’s main rings consist of the C, B, and A rings, each with different populations of particles. During the analysis, he noticed that the appearance of Saturn’s rings in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum was totally different from what is seen in the visible light Hideaki Fujiwara, a scientist and public information officer at the Subaru Telescope, analyzed data taken in January 2008 using the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) on the telescope to produce a beautiful image of Saturn for public information purposes. For example, the international Cassini mission led by NASA has been observing Saturn and its rings for more than ten years, and has released a huge number of beautiful images.ĭr. Spacecraft- and ground-based telescopes have tackled that mystery with many observations at various wavelengths and methods. Although we know that they are made of ice particles orbiting above Saturn’s equator, their detailed origin and nature remain a mystery. The rings of Saturn have fascinated people since they were first observed by Galileo. These findings have been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The mid-infrared images, taken by the Subaru Telescope in 2008, have shown that Saturn’s C ring is brighter than visible light images would suggest. 28, 2017) – Images of Saturn taken to promote public awareness of science have led to a new discovery about the planet’s rings.
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