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Astrometrics
Infrared Ring Around Saturn
This diagram highlights a slice of Saturn's largest ring. The ring (red band in inset photo) was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected infrared light, or heat, from the dusty ring material. Spitzer viewed the ring edge-on from its Earth-trailing orbit around the sun.
The ring has a diameter equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side. And it's thick too -- about 20 Saturns could fit into its vertical height. The ring is tilted about 27 degrees from Saturn's main ring plane.
The Spitzer data were taken by its multiband imaging photometer and show infrared light with a wavelength of 24 microns.
The picture of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Related Media
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News Release NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn ssc2009-19 |
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Image Infrared Ring Around Saturn ssc2009-19a |
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Image Big Band of Dust ssc2009-19a1 |
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Image The King of Rings ssc2009-19b |
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Image Artist's Rendering of Saturn's Infrared Ring ssc2009-19c |
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Video Saturn Family Tour ssc2009-19v1 |
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Video The One Ring of Saturn (Showcase) hiddenuniverse028 |
Image Components
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Image Big Band of Dust ssc2009-19a1 |
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March 6 Loops of Gas and Dust Rise from Planetary Disks |
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February 26 Seeing Through a Veil of Dust |
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February 26 The Cigar Galaxy M82 |
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February 26 M82 Galaxy with Supernova |
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February 20 The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star |
