Other
Scientific paper
Sep 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.1809s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #18.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1125
Other
Scientific paper
An exhaustive analysis of the Voyager image data sets reveals the F Ring to be the most dynamic ring in the solar system. At both Voyager encounters, 2--3 major clumps and 10--20 minor clumps are visible. Most can be tracked for ~ 6 weeks during each Voyager encounter, but none persist for the 9 months between encounters. Individual clumps move at measurably different mean motions. Working in a frame rotating at the ring's nominal mean motion of 582.27(deg) /day (Synnott et al., Icarus 53, 156, 1983), clumps move at rates of -0.46(deg) /day to +0.14(deg) /day, with the vast majority being negative. This range of rates implies that the F Ring's clumps span a semimajor axis range of ~ 80 km, with most falling radially outward from the nominal value of 140,185 km. The most obvious change during either encounter is a ``burst'' event, where a new narrow clump appears about the time of the Voyager 2 encounter. This clump then proceeds to spread longitudinally at a rate of ~ 0.4(deg) /day over the next 10 days that it can be observed. However, a much less prominent ``precursor'' feature seems to be visible prior to the observed event. The second most obvious change is even more puzzling. The brightest clump in the Voyager 2 data seems to emit several other clumps from it, at intervals of ~ 2 weeks. Furthermore, these clumps have a systematically higher mean motion than the clump from which they emerge. A more thorough analysis of the Voyager 1 data set will reveal whether matching phenomena were at work nine months earlier.
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