How can you detect rings around planets without a telescope?
Bma92 asked:
What is one way you could detect a thin ring around a distant gas giant if you couldn’t see the ring with a telescope?
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What is one way you could detect a thin ring around a distant gas giant if you couldn’t see the ring with a telescope?
December 21st, 2009 at 12:42 am
There’s Klingons around Uranus!
I love dat one!! Fred
December 21st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Faint rings have been discovered indirectly (as in the cases of Uranus and, I believe, Neptune) by watching background stars as the planet passed in front of them. The rings briefly dimmed the starlight, indicating the presence of some obscuring material near the planet.
These discoveries still required a telescope, even though the rings were not directly seen. Argent