It's sciencey!

[mmcirvin]

1. Backlit Saturn.
2. Ununoctium, the noble gas after radon.
3. This Wikipedia featured picture showing Lorentz transformations in action is really clever.

Comments

but look at the discontinuities

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Between the lower half of the planet and the bright part of the rings, there's a dark gap, which would be the shadow of the planet, right? And the outer edges of the image of rings we see across the lower half of the planet don't line up with the bright rings next to it at all. It seems like it's got to be either a reflection (which doesn't make sense when what's reflected is in shadow) or a refracted image seen through the lens of the planet (which also seems a little impossible).

EXCEPT! now I see that all the lines in the middle of the rings DO line up. The outer edge just seems to fade into oblivion in the more diffuse light. But I'm still baffled by what I thought was an image of the inner edge, the uppermost section of the bright band across the middle of the planet.

Re: but look at the discontinuities

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

But I'm still baffled by what I thought was an image of the inner edge, the uppermost section of the bright band across the middle of the planet.

I think that's a combination of the rings, and the ring-light illuminating the surface of the planet itself. The relatively sharp dark line across the equator is there because the rings block most of the light reflected off them when seen edge on, so the clouds along the equator get less ring-light.