Abstract
AN interesting note on the spectrum of Saturn's rings was communicated to the Royal Society on February 7 by Mr. Norman Lockyer. It has long been known that the rings are considerably more luminous than the planet, and the photographs by the Brothers Henry show that this is truer for the blue light than the more visible rays. It is therefore possible that they shine partly by their own light, and since it is now universally acknowledged that they consist of small bodies in motion, their spectrum has an important bearing on the meteoric hypothesis. Mr. Lockyer suggested that the additional luminosity might be due to collisions, and in order to determine whether the collisions were of sufficient intensity to produce incandescent vapours or not, he asked one of his assistants, Mr. Porter, to obtain a photograph of the spectrum. This was done at the Astronomical Laboratory at South Kensington, with a spectroscope having two prisms of 60° attached to the eye-end of the 10-inch equatorial. The photograph was taken with an exposure of about two hours, and shows decided indications of bright lines. Mr. Lockyer says:—“It is altogether too early to announce this as an established fact, but I think it well to send this note, in order that other observers with more powerful optical appliances and a better climate than that of London may investigate the question.”
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F., A. The Spectrum of the Rings of Saturn . Nature 39, 564 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039564a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039564a0