Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability

Details Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.5001c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #50.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1007

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph has observed more than 100 occultations of stars by Saturn's rings with a typical ring plane radial resolution of <20 m. Occultations observed at high incidence angle and those where the line of sight is tangent to the rings provide a direct measure of the radial structure of sharp ring edges on small spatial scales. We analyze the edges of the Huygens and Titan Ringlets and the Encke Gap in the UVIS stellar occultation data to extract information on vertical and radial structure. Using a simple model for the vertical and radial distribution of ring material, we are able to fit the majority of the light curves for these edges. In a significant fraction of cases, however, the edge shows complex structure within 100 m of the edge, preventing a fit from our smooth model. We find that the radial scale, characterized by a sigmoid function, over which the ring optical depth declines is typically 10-20 m. We are unable to place a tight constraint on the vertical thickness of the ring, however, because the light curve is dominated by the scale of the radial variation. We find large variability in the structure of the edges with no clear correlation to known possible perturbers in the system.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability 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 Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sharp Edges in Saturn's Rings: Radial Structure and Longitudinal Variability will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1229926