Topic: More Jaw-Droppers from Cassini

[sam]

The Cassini mission keeps churning out the hits, and here's a collection of some of the latest stunning images released by the CICLOPS (Cassini Imaging for Central Operations) team. Above, the small moon Janus is almost hidden between the planet's rings and the larger moon Rhea. The northern part of Janus can be seen peeking above the rings in this image of a "mutual event" where Janus (179 kilometers, 111 miles across) moved past Rhea (1,528 kilometers, 949 miles across). Mutual event observations such as this one, in which one moon passes close to or in front of another, help scientists refine their understanding of the orbits of Saturn's moons. Click here to see a movie of the event.

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/02/26/more-jaw-droppers-from-cassini/

[Simon]

That's answered a question I've been meaning to ask - why are all planets round?  Answer - they're not.  Some are potato shaped. 

[Clive]

The potato-shaped ones are just moons of planets Simon.  Many of them are captured asteroids.  There are currently two such bodies in strange orbits around Earth so we technically have three moons in total.  The situation is temporary and one of them is expected to disengage from Earth in a few thousand years time.

[Simon]

I'll make a note of that in my diary.

[sam]

but due to differential rotational all of the planets buldge around the centre. much more noticeable on the gaseous planets.

[Rik]

I know how they feel, Sam.