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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Saturn's "Flying Saucer" Moons Made Mainly of Ring Dust


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An illustration of Saturn's moon Atlas shows the bulging equatorial ridge that gives the satellite its flying saucer shape.

A new study suggests that this "belt" is smooth, scientist Sébastien Charnoz said, because it "is an accumulation of tiny icy particles like sand." The pole, by contrast is jagged because it is an ancient fragment of a demolished rocky moon, he added.

Illustration courtesy CEA/ANIMEA