WRITER FUEL: What Are Saturn’s Rings Made Of?

Welcome to the latest installment of “Writer Fuel – cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration. Today:

Distant images make Saturn’s rings appear to be one solid band of rock. However close flybys and studies have provided detailed images of the rings’ arrangement, with precise snaps of some of the unique objects orbiting Saturn.

Saturn’s rings are an array of rocky and icy fragments, which scientists believe to be pieces of moons, asteroids and comets, according to NASA. The theory is that these giant rocks were shattered into fragments under the force of Saturn’s gravity. The result is a combination of huge, mountain-sized rocks and tiny particles of dust. Many of the larger objects in the planet’s rings are coated in a layer of dust.

Before 1979, scientists thought that Saturn was the only planet in the solar system with rings, according to the Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology. Now we know that, while all the planets attract space objects into rings, Saturn’s rings are the brightest and lie close together.

Full Story From Live Science

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Summary: The America of our near-future is divided across socio-economic and technological-philosophical lines. The Traditionalists eschew any and all post-human technologies in favor of tangible materials. They uphold strict hierarchical structures based on religion, family, and leadership. They long for the return of the global markets wiped out by a world-shaking disaster called The Great Tide. The Interconnected stand in stark opposition to their ways, living without property, family, or religion, and modifying their bodies with the help of new and invasive technologies. They speak to each other wordlessly, employing a technological telepathy they call ‘thexting’ to communicate mind to mind, and embrace the gifting economy of Merit to maintain their post-scarcity lifestyles. Marto, the traveling Interconnected historian, has exiled himself to protect the ones he loves from his dark secret. In his absence, Helen, a runaway Traditionalist aristocrat, struggles to find her place among the Interconnected, unwilling to return to her cruel family. Reyleena, the former head of security in the Interconnected town of Reverside, has returned to a life of quiet solitude, broken occasionally by the impositions of The Other, an omnipresent AI, who will not leave her alone. Meanwhile, Barnabas, the Traditionalist leader of New Atlantic, fights to return to his township in the wake of an attack. Nora, his sister, remains in Reverside and must come to terms with her new life in captivity.