Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1008s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #10.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.427
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the August 1995 Saturn ring-plane crossing (RPX) by Earth revealed a surprising east-west asymmetry in ring brightness both before and after the RPX (Nicholson et al. 1996). Previous F-ring models (Poulet et al. 2000) used the overall ring brightness near RPX to probe the photometric thickness of the F ring. In the current work, we exploit the fact that the brightness asymmetry is sensitive to the inclination, node, and physical height of the F ring.
We use the inclined F-ring orbit of Bosh et al. (2002), and treat the F ring as a longitudinally symmetric "ribbon" of uniform albedo and phase function with a vertical Gaussian distribution of radial optical depth that has a full height at half maximum of 13±7 km and an equivalent depth (i.e. radially-integrated normal optical depth) of 10±4 km.
The model reproduces the observed asymmetry in ring brightness immediately after the RPX, when the Earth is on the sunlit side of the main rings. The F ring obscures the east ansa to a greater extent than the west ansa and the sense of the asymmetry then reverses as the Earth passes through the F-ring plane. Before the RPX, the model does not reproduce the small observed asymmetry in ring brightness, suggesting that the dark-side asymmetry is due to longitudinal variations in the F ring rather than blocking effects. The shapes of model radial profiles of ring brightness are a good match to the HST data both before and after the RPX.
This work was supported by NASA.
Nicholson Philip D.
Scharringhausen Britt
No associations
LandOfFree
A Photometric Model of the Inclined F Ring of Saturn does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Photometric Model of the Inclined F Ring of Saturn, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Photometric Model of the Inclined F Ring of Saturn will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1065016