Movie of Saturns Ring Current

This movie is made up of over 600 consecutive images taken on March 16 to March 18, 2007, with the Cassini Magnetopsheric Imaging Instrument’s ion and neutral camera. The movie clip shows Saturn’s dynamic “ring current,“ which is an invisible ring of energetic ions trapped in the magnetic field of the planet. The ion and neutral camera allows scientists to produce movies that show how this ring changes over time and these movies reveal a dynamic system. The ring current is doughnut shaped but in some instances it appears like someone took a bite out of it. (For a related image see PIA10082). The ion and neutral camera records the intensity of the escaping particles, which provides a map of the ring current. In this movie, the colors represent the intensity of the neutral emission, which is a reflection of the trapped ions. This “ring“ is much farther from Saturn (roughly five times farther) then Saturn’s famous icy rings. Red represents the higher intensity of the particles, while blue is less intense. Sa