Ring of fire

Saturn could have a zone in its upper atmosphere where frequent bright flashes take place. The prediction comes from modelling the orbits of the chunks of ice that make up the planet’s huge ring system. The models show that the orbits of some of the inner particles should decay, sending them plunging into the atmosphere to produce fireballs that would appear as a series of bright streaks at the equator, says David Rubincam of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We should be able to see some luminous effects.” Scientists studying images of the planet sent back by…