The rings of Saturn, as scientists today believe, arose as a result of the destruction of the "embryo" of the planet in the early days of the existence of the solar system
The Cassini probe took the most detailed photographs of Saturn's near rings and saw in them many "propellers" - bright vortices and waves, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The rings of Saturn, according to scientists today, arose as a result of the destruction of the "embryo" of the planet in the early days of the existence of the solar system. It came too close to the giant planet, was torn apart by tidal forces and shattered into many small fragments, the densest of which were "eaten" by Saturn and Titan, and the rest formed the material of future rings.
In the new images taken by Cassini during the last "dive" into the rings of Saturn, you can see the peculiar "folds", "straws" and "propellers" walking along the surface of the ring A, the disk of gas and dust closest to the planet, and its neighbors. Scientists began to talk about these structures back in 2004 when Cassini entered the orbit of Saturn, but their first photographs were obtained only this winter, when the probe began flying through the rings.
According to scientists, the new photographs draw a line between the large "propellers" that Cassini saw at the beginning of its mission and which are associated with the existence of moons inside the gas and dust rings of Saturn, and small structures of this kind found recently. Studying them will help you understand how these moons originated, when they were born and how long they live.
Cassini recently officially began the final phase of its life, meeting the Titan for the last time on April 22 this year. The rendezvous with this moon of Saturn helped the probe change its flight path and enter the collision course with the planet, in the atmosphere of which it will burn up in mid-September this year.
During this time, "Cassini" will make 22 flights through the gap between the rings and their "lord". Two weeks ago, he performed the first such pirouette, getting as close as possible to Saturn and receiving a lot of new scientific data on the structure of the interior and atmosphere of the giant planet. For additional protection of the probe, NASA deployed the main antenna of the Cassini in such a way that it became a kind of barrier and protected the spacecraft from the impact of dust particles and microasteroids.
