Ian- That's an interesting read. I had it in my mind (probably from something I'd read previously) that the rings were at most less than 1 meter thick. Still, I think I'd have been more impressed by an actual astrophoto of Saturn's rings depicting our reality and actual perspective of them than the CGI presentation of the rings they depicted. But maybe that's just me. I think the show will do wonders to promote interest in astronomy, which is great, but it's also depicting a cosmos that is entirely beyond the reach of modern astronomers, and that makes me a bit uncomfortable. When I show kids the rings of Saturn through my telescope, the responses range from an excited "WOW!!!" to an indifferent "meh." After seeing Tyson's depiction of them, will I now expect more "meh"s? Jared On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Ian Glenn <root.ibg@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree except for one point Jared. You're right, it was ridiculous when the ship flew through the asteroid belt and there were hundreds swarming around. So naturally I also thought the depiction of Saturn's rings was also over done like that.
Not so according to this paper : http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/133/6/2624/pdf/1538-3881_133_6_2624.pdf(... this via the Reddit Cosmos Q&A) which shows Cassini measurements indicating the A ring has a surface density of ~40 g/cm^2 and a thickness of just ~6m. Since ice is about 1 g/cm^3 and different rocks maybe a few times that, that still shows how remarkably dense the A ring is, and its depiction in the show was probably accurate.
I guess I learned something after all!
Ian
On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 11:54 AM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com>wrote:
I never met Sagan but I had a real sense of loss while watching him last night. He was a fine scientist and a great inspiration, yet look how he was treated by the scientific establishment.
------------------------------ On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 5:34 AM MDT Chuck Hards wrote:
I met Carl Sagan in mid 70s. He was very interested in what this teenager had to say, a perfect gentleman. The last segment got me a bit misty, as well. I actually gave up an hour of sleep to catch it, rather than watch the DVR recording tonight.
I'll watch the entire series.
I picked up the original COSMOS on DVD last year, to replace my aging VHS tape set (I don't even have a VCR anymore). Am about halfway through it. It holds-up well after all these years.
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