Small meteors punch through Saturn's rings
April 26th, 2013
The April 25 paper published in the journal Science provides the first
direct evidence of small meteoroids, around a half-inch to several yards
in size, breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn’s
rings. The scientists, led by Matt Tiscareno, senior research associate
at Cornell, were able to see the tracks left by nine of these objects in
2005, 2009 and 2012. The Saturnian equinox in summer 2009 was an
especially fruitful time to see the debris left by impacts: The shallow
sun angle on the rings caused the clouds of debris to look bright
against the darkened rings in Cassini’s pictures.
Link to Cornell Chronicle article: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/04/small-meteors-punch-through-saturns-rings
Other articles:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-saturn-rings-meteor-shower-space-science/
