Gravity qwestion

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ben89

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sirs & mames/ we was wonderin bout this yesterday during our sceince club meetin? how comes casinni spacecrahf didnt get torn apart by saturns gravity/<br /><br />saturns rings are made up of approchin comets torn to bits by the superstrong gravity of the planet 'dont it? <br /><br />so it shoud have been the same 4 casinno ' no?<br /><br />
 
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Saiph

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Tidal forces require a significant difference in gravity from one side of an object to another.<br /><br />Cassini is small, and so such a difference will be minor. Furthermore, cassini is made of much sturdier material than even a moon (which is just a conglomerate of silicates), as it is tempered and forged steel. As such, the craft can endure forces far beyond the limits of a naturally occuring asteroid, comet or moon.<br /><br />Really, I don't think the tidal forces of Saturn will ever be enough to rip apart a steel object the size of cassini. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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ben89

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thankx so much mr Saiph/ i know i can always count on u. i"ll tell the others. sorry if i cant lose the mr/ u deserve it<br /><br />if cassini wasnt so small & it was big like a asteroid some parts of it like a antenaa would have come off?<br />
 
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tfwthom

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From Oxford Dicitionary of Astronomy:<br /><br />"Planetary rings may consist of debris from impacts on the planets' satellites."<br /><br />This one from Asrtonomy Mysteries of the rings <br /><br />I've heard other thoughts that the rings are satillites (moons) that never formed. <br /><br />Your guess is as good as any, we just don't know that much about rings.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>
 
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ben89

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another thanxk i throw 2 mr Thom for the rings link eventho it wasnt directed 2 me/<br /><br />sho learnd somthin tho & thats very importent 2 me & our club/<br />
 
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Saiph

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the lifespan of the rings doesn't really allow for them to be "unformed" moons. Such a ring system can only last on the order of a million years or so. Moon formation should be long over when the rings formed.<br /><br />IIRC, the rings'll be gone (due to decaying orbits) in ~500,000 years. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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ben89

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thank u mr(or not) Saiph 4 this. even tho i have 2 think hard about it 2 understandit.<br />
 
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tfwthom

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I don't remember where I heard the theory that the rings could be "unformed" moons.....then again Astronomy 161 <br /><br />Origin of the Rings<br /><br />Rings might represent:<br /> <br />unformed bodies, or <br /><br />broken-up (tidally disrupted) bodies<br /> <br />Current evidence favors second explanation because rings are not expected to be long-lived phenomenon. <br /><br />Do they get replenished? <br /><br />Three stages in formation <br /><br />1 Orbiting cloud of particles ® thin disk (remember conservation of angular momentum)<br /><br />2 Keplerean shear ® spreading of rings (speed in orbit depends on distance; collisions are soft) .<br /><br />3 Collisions and evolution stop (never actually achieved - perturbations by external objects dominate and collisions continue.)<br /><br /><br /><br />From The Nine Planets website: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html<br /><br />There are complex tidal resonances between some of Saturn's moons and the ring system: some of the moons, the so-called "shepherding satellites" (i.e. Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora) are clearly important in keeping the rings in place; Mimas seems to be responsible for the paucity of material in the Cassini division, which seems to be similar to the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt; Pan is located inside the Encke Division and S/2005 S1 is in the center of the Keeler Gap. The whole system is very complex and as yet poorly understood.<br /><br /> The origin of the rings of Saturn (and the other jovian planets) is unknown. Though they may have had rings since their formation, the ring systems are not stable and must be regenerated by ongoing processes, perhaps the breakup of larger satellites. The current set of rings may be only a few hundred million years old. <br /><br />Not tha <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>
 
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ben89

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thankx 2 Tigerbitin 4 the roach limit/<br /><br />i will show his'her post to mr Parslow our sceince club sponsor 2morow. hell understand the limit<br /><br />
 
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nexium

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Last I heard, one of the extra solar planets is inside the Roche limit, which apparently does not define the point at which things break up, but the point at which they cannot assemble = form. Last I heard the gravity of Saturn at the cloud tops, is 1g, so Cassini was not stressed any more by the gravity of Saturn than it would be in Earth's upper atmosphere. Inside Saturn we would expect to find less than one g, but the atmospheric pressure would be extreme. <br />Cassini would have been damaged if it had collided with a pea size piece of the material the rings are made of. Neil
 
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ben89

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thanxk 2 mr nexiun Neil 4 this very imformative information/<br /><br />this is the kind of stuff we wanted 2 kno/<br /><br />
 
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willpittenger

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The entire ring structure is inside the Roche limit. Objects in there are pulled apart by tidal stresses. That is what formed the rings. All such objects will be deorbited -- again, due to gravitational tides. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>
 
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ben89

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thank u 2 mr willwittenger 4 the explaination.<br /><br />its getting more complicate and clear at the same time.<br />
 
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jatslo

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I seem to recall that the Saturian E-ring is a byproduct of hydrothermal activity of a tiny Saturian satellite, so if that is the case there, then we can make a case for it here, right?
 
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