Saturn's F Ring: A Story Of A Core, Moonlets And Spirals

Details Saturn's F Ring: A Story Of A Core, Moonlets And Spirals Saturn's F Ring: A Story Of A Core, Moonlets And Spirals

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1007c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #10.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.426

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Since 2004, Cassini has explored the complex dynamical environment surrounding the F ring (Porco et al. 2005, Murray et al. 2005a) and revealed the presence of dynamical spiral structures on both sides of the F ring, with radial width about +/-300 km (Charnoz et al. 2005). After 3 years, the spiral structure always seems to be there (Murray et al. in preparation). Beside this, small moons orbiting in the F ring region were also imaged (Murray et al. 2005b, Spitale et al. 2005,).
We numerically investigate the dynamical evolution of the F ring impacted by small km-sized moonlets. Both gravitational and physical rebounds are considered. We show that physical rebound at a moonlet's surface is an efficient mechanism to scatter material over large distances and can create spiral structures with radial width
matching observations, provided a low coefficient of restitution is assumed. Conversely gravitational scattering seems inefficient in creating large-scale spiral structures.
Different scenarios are investigated in which the F ring core is either made of massless dust or consists of solid bodies. Numerical simulation of spirals best match observations when solid bodies embedded in the F ring are hit by incoming moonlets that are loosely bound aggregates.
These results show that the F ring's spirals could be the "smoking gun" of on going collisional processes suggesting the presence of solid moonlets embedded in the F ring core. This also strengthens the idea that the F ring may be massive.

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