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Darkness Falls over Saturn's Rings
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Source: softpedia
November 05, 2009
Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system, features a large number of rings, some of which usually experience a brief “night,” lasting from six to 14 hours. At times, however, the entire ring system is engulfed by shadows, when the planet reaches its equinox. This happens once every 15 Earth years, and the latest such occurrence took place on August 11. Fortunately for us, the Cassini space probe was in orbit around the gas giant, and sent back some of the most outstanding measurements of the phenomenon's influences that astronomers ever got the chance to look at.
