'Spikes' in Saturn's rings baffle scientists on Earth

Scientists studying photos beamed to Earth by Voyager I cannot explain puzzling images in Saturn's rings. "There are spikelike features in the rings as they come from behind the planet in the orbit," a Jet Propulsion Laboratory spokesman said. "They really have the members of the imaging team scratching their heads." The spikelike features appear as dark material, or spaces, in the rings.

Voyager I is to make its closed encounter with Saturn Nov. 12, sailing through the outer E-ring about 77,000 miles above the planet's cloud tops. Tuesday, Voyager will pass to within 2,500 miles of the moon Titan -- larger than the planet Mercury and the only satellite in the solar system known to have an atmosphere.