4.5 billion years ago, the planets of our Solar System were built up through collisions between smaller objects. Saturn's F ring provides an ideal laboratory for us to study the same process happening today. These collisions, and interactions between the F ring and nearby moons, make the F ring a dynamically rich and exciting system. The F ring has been studied extensively in images that look down on the ring plane, but this only tells us what is happening in two dimensions.  To understand the third dimension, we must look at the rings from the side.  My students and I have analyzed and designed edge-on observations of the rings during ring-plane crossings by the Cassini Spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Saturn. We are using these observations to uncover the vertical structure of the F ring.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hot buffet lunch will be available for $3.00 beginning at 12:00 noon.  To assure a proper count, please RSVP to Csilla Macsari by Tuesday, November 8 (email: macsaric, or call extension 2263).  Everyone is welcome!