Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jun 1988
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1988a%26a...199..340i&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 199, no. 1-2, June 1988, p. 340-342.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5
Cosmology, Planetary Evolution, Saturn Rings, Saturn Satellites, Comet Nuclei, Hypervelocity Impact, Impact Damage
Scientific paper
To assess the scenario of a very recent origin of the Saturnian ring system as suggested by several lines of dynamical investigations, the critical size of a (cometary) projectile with enough impact kinetic energy to catastrophically fragement the precursor satellite is estimated. For a mean collision speed of 31 km s-1 and an impact strength of 107dyn/cm2 for a 55-km radius precursor body, the radius of the cometary nucleus should be about 1.0 km. Statistics of long-period comets and current estimate of the size distribution of cometary nuclei imply collisional breakup time scale of ≈6×109yr for the ring precursor satellite. The alleged parent body of the ring system thus could have sustained impact bombardment over the history of the solar system - after the early heavy bombardment event - until the present time.
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