Who says the gods don't cuss? Cosmically speaking, of course. A recent photograph from the Cassini spacecraft revealed a mysterious object plunging through the F-ring (oh the irony!) of Saturn. While Saturn rings are thousands of miles across, they are only some average 30 meters thick made up of mostly ice crystals. We are fortunate that the Saturn slightly tilts in its inclination toward the Sun allowing the rings to be illuminated. While Saturnian moons can play havoc with the rings from time to time due to their eccentric orbits and gravititational fields causing the rings to wave slightly, to see an object pass almost directly through the rings perpendicular to its plane is extremely rare. But there is an even more puzzling aspect as Phil Plait points out in his blog. See the photo below.
According to Phil, while the ring material appears to be very thick, it is actually very porous compared to air or water. So when an object plunges through the ring, there should not be much of a tail or wake. But as this photo clearly shows, the object was clearly drawn away a significant amount of debris from the field. How this can occur has astronomers puzzled. See the closeup below. Thanks to Phil Plait for bringing this photo to light.
Also, notice that the 'finger' casts a shadow across the ring.
Note: Yesterday, the Saturnian rings disappeared from our view when Saturn tilted on its axis causing the rings to orient edge on toward the sun reflecting almost no sunlight. This effect occurs about every 15 years.