Submission + - Astronomers Still Puzzled by Saturn's Spokes
SteakNShake writes: Science magazine online reports that astronomers remain puzzled over Saturn's electric spokes. The spokes were discovered in 1980 when astonished observers examined the images coming back from the Voyager I probe. Explanations now center on electrical phenomena. Geraint Jones of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Dorking, U.K. and his colleages now suggest that Saturn's (as yet unexplained) thunderstorms produce (as yet unexplained) beams of electrons across Saturn's rings, directed by Saturn's magnetic field, and charge presumed dust particles in such a fashion that they hover over the rings. This cart-before-the-horse reasoning defies conventional understanding of electron beams directed by magnetic fields, but appears to explain some aspects of the spokes' behavior, while leaving many gaps to be filled in our understanding of this phenomenon.
