On November 2024 I was interviewed for an amazing NPR podcast called Live in the Earth about my most recent celebrity book, Under foreign skies. While prepping for the show, one of the producers asked me a question that was so deceptively simple, so wonderfully succinct, and came from such an odd direction that I was immediately enamored with it.
Can you drink Saturn’s rings?
After stopping at a time to sweeten the question, I replied to one of my favorite answers as a scientist and a communication scientist: “I don’t know.”
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So I’m doing. And with my happiness, the nation’s response finds me another personal favorite: Yes! But not. Kura. It depends on.
I like this kind of response because it appears when the science behind a seemingly easy question is not very simple.
So please remove a steep glass (local overflow) ice water, sit and explain.
Saturn’s rings were probably first seen in Galileo in 1610. His telescope is relatively low-quality compared to modern equipment. And through optics, all he sees is a pair of blobs, one on each side of the visible surface of the planet; He introduced them to “Saturn’s” ears. “
Not until some decades astronomers know these “ears” actually is a ring planet. There are so many not clear, but one thing is certain: The ring cannot be strong. The speed in which something orbiting a planet depends on the distance from that world, and Saturn’s ring is widespread that the ordination of the inside edge, which prompts any content.
Astronomers come in various different ideas for structure, including a series of solid finglets or even a liquid. Dili pa hangtud sa tungatunga sa 1800 nga ang Dakong Physticist sa Scottish nga si James Clerk Maxwell gipamatud-an nga kini labi ka gamay nga gagmay nga mga partikulo, nga labi ka gamay nga makita sa matag usa ka gagmay nga mga partikulo, nga labi ka gamay nga makita sa matag usa ka gamay nga mga partikulo, nga labi ka gamay nga makita sa matag usa ka gagmay nga mga partikulo, nga labi ka gamay nga makita sa matag usa ka gamay nga mga partikulo, nga labi You are little visible to each fewer particles, which are less likely to see each other see each other from the ground.
In addition, these little forms form is not just a ring but many, and these major rings are assigned to letters in order of their discovery. The ring is the external bright ring. Just content of this is the bright and wide ring, consisting mainly the whole mass of the ring system. The contents of that is the most black ring, which leads to the faint ring that is about to come to the upper atmosphere of Saturn itself. Overall these rings rotated around 275,000 kilometers – two in the third part of the month-month distance! In spite of their large sprawl, Rings are almost less flatIn many places about 10 meters thick. Saw the exact edge – of, as they were a narrow line that cuts the planet.
Saturn’s rings named alphabetically in order discovered, as shown in this animation. The narrow fing marks the outer border of the main ring system.
The NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Scenence
But what do they do? Observations of centuries reveal that the main covered with the rings is simpler: ice ice! Good ol ‘frozen h2Or more commonly in the outer solar system and contains most of the many months and other small bodies there.
In fact, in situ observations made by Cassini spacecraft-which is orbited Saturn for more than a dozen years–SHOWS That in some places the rings were made with almost completely pure ice ice. However better, most of the ring holes are a few centimeters in whole or small – the size of ice cubes, so they can easily interrupt.
It’s nice to hear! All you have to do then scoop some chunks, it’s hot – a many (The average temperature of the rings is -190 degrees Celsius) – and have your own a nice, refreshing SIP.
But not too easy. This is where it is more complicated. The scene of rings also shows that they are not made absolutely pure ice. There are other materials in the rings, and even if we usually talk about contamination less than 1 percent of the masses, it is not clear what is this matter. The best guess of scientists is that it comes from the effects of micromeorites, small particles surrounding the outer solar system. This material is likely to consist of silicates (that is, rocks) or many metals, which is iron.
Nothing harms you, even if the US Environmental Protection Agency recommends that no more than 0.3 milligram steel per liter of juicy water (to avoid a metal taste). You better run a magnet with your ring water before you drink it – and you may be able to filter any silicate sediment while you are.
On the other hand, the rings’ spectra suggest some unknown carbon-based contaminants. A probable candidate can be complicated organic molecules called polycyclic haromatic communds, or Paah, which is relatively widely in space; Many giant stars blow the air in Pah-Lede as they die. A molecule that is usually in Pahs is Cyanonaphthalene, which is considered carcinogenic. (Not clear How exposure people’s risks-Is, for that matter, if this specified molecule is actually in the rings.)
It’s best to be careful and avoid these potential contaminants by choosing your rings carefully. The rich ice ice is higher than the outer rings in one and one half, for example, while C and D rings appear to be most contaminated. So, usually speaks, it can be better to choose for ice from one ob while skipping c and at all.
Can also have other icices in rings, too, including frozen methane and carbon dioxide. Methane should bump if ice has liquid, and of course co2 is to make carbonated drinks digging. That might actually add a fun drink to drink from the rings!
There are other rings, also outside the major we have already discussed. For example, Saturn’s Mody Moon Enceladus Boasts a lot of geysers spraying liquid water from its contents into space. This material makes a weak, bad ring (the ring) That, again, is most ice water but also have a small amount of silicates-and toxic ammonia – so I don’t recommend it.
However, all of all, as it isIf careful curate and cleaned-Sulnur’s rings in real drinking!
How much water in rings? The overall mass of the rings about 1.5 × 1019 Kilrograms, which, correcting for ice density and removal of contaminants, must lead 10 quawillion liters to heal a million years.
Eventually, when and when people start the interplanetary space-lanes, they need extraterrestrial water source because lifting it from the ground is difficult and expensive. Saturn’s rings may be in the future a popular stop at rest. And, oh I, what a viewers wants guests like they have filled!
My thank you my friend and outer solar system system system GANT planet astronomer Heidi Hammel for his assistance with this article and the Wilson For asking me this terrible question!
