Nov 11 1980
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(New page: Only a day away from its closest encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 had surprised scientists again with images of a huge hill on the moon Tethys and some distorted "ringlets" inside Satu...)
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Only a day away from its closest encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 had surprised scientists again with images of a huge hill on the moon Tethys and some distorted "ringlets" inside Saturn's concentric ring system. The head of the imaging team, Dr. Bradford Smith, said Saturn's rings were a complex system with dozens of small ringlets forming perfect circles within circles; traditional theories did not explain even the series of concentric ringlets.
Of one ringlet offset in a ring gap, Smith said that it was not circular and not of uniform width, varying from 15 to 50 miles wide; this and another found elsewhere might be caused by small moonlets not yet visible on either side, distorting the ring particles with their gravity. (W Star, Nov 12/80, A-5)
ESA announced that France had deposited its "instrument of ratification" of the convention establishing the agency, completing legal formalities for its going into force. Countries that signed the convention May 30, 1975, had agreed to make it applicable immediately, permitting ESA to operate de facto for more than five years. Formalizing the agency meant that the 11-member states could now avail themselves of all possibilities offered by the convention intended to give a "truly European dimension" to the space effort. Current member nations were Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Ireland had signed the convention December 31, 1975, and would soon deposit with ESA its own instrument of ratification to obtain the legal status of a member state. Austria, under various agreements to participate in ESA programs, would be an associate member as defined in the convention. Canada and Norway, which had also participated in some ESA programs, would remain in observer status. (ESA Info 23; Df Dly, Nov 14180, 65)
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