I never understood the significance of this until now.
NASA: Saturn's Infrared Ring.
This artist's conception shows a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings. It was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The 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.
The inset shows an enlarged image of Saturn, as seen by the W.M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in infrared light. The ring, stars and wispy clouds are an artist's representation.
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8 comments:
Looks like you still don't understand it. That ring is composed of water ice from Enceladus.
An actual "Nova" event (if it were even possible) would have left a much larger expanding ring.
2/10 for style, minus several million for stupidity.
Jeffery,
"That ring is composed of water ice"
I know that because Velikovsky predicted it in the 1940s.
"'The rings of Saturn are formations of less than ten or twelve thousand years old. They must consist largely of water in the form of ice, but since the ancient lore all around the world tells us that it was Jupiter who put these rings around Saturn, they may have some other components, too' [1940s]. Since these lines were written, spectroscopic study of the Saturnian rings has revealed that they consist mainly of water in the form of ice." -- Immanuel Velikovsky, cosmologist, Saturn, 1966
I couldn't find Velikovsky's prediction. But I did find this quote at Varchive:
As early as 1947 Kuiper (The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets [1949]), concluded on the basis of spectral measurements in the infrared that “the rings are covered by frost, if not composed of ice.” Cf. A. Cook et al., “Saturn’s Rings—A Survey,” Icarus 18 (1973), p. 317: “Although frozen H2O is a major constituent, the spectral reflectivity indicates the presence of other materials.”
So did Velikovsky predict this earlier? If so, when? Do you have a citation?
The essay called Saturn was written in the 1940s and was meant for publication in Worlds of Collision but the publisher requested that Velikovsky limit Worlds in Collision to the topics of Venus and Mars.
Having read Saturn just now, it looks like he was preparing WiC in 1946.
Let's assume that he made the prediction about the ring's content in 1946, a year before Kuiper.
He did it on the basis of comparative mythology and his reading of the scientific literature (apparent from his discussion of comets in Saturn.)
But the fact that comets were observed consisting of water (ice), according to their spectral picture, permits the conclusion that water “ready-made” cae (came?) from the planetary “nova.”
Kuiper made his prediction based on spectroscopic observation, the same as Velikovsky. Velikovsky embellished his findings with mythology, Kuiper did not.
Velikovsky's prediction was correct a priori because it was based upon a posteriori experience i.e. mythology.
...and observation.
Well...mostly observation.
In fact, all he had to do was read about comets, match the myths he felt "added" up and POOF he's a scientist.
Bit of a tosser if you ask me.
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