New Radiation Belt Discovered Around Saturn
Sunday, September 13, 2009 - 20:56
in Astronomy & Space
The Cassini spacecraft's Magnetospheric Imaging instrument (MIMI) has detected a temporary radiation belt around Dione, one of the moons of Saturn. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Elias Roussos on Monday, September 14th. Radiation belts, like Earth’s Van Allen belts, have been discovered at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune but it has only been possible to observe the variability of their intensity at Earth and Jupiter. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for more than five years so it has been possible to assess changes in Saturn’s radiation belts. read more