The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring

Details The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.1810o&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #18.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1125

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

3

Scientific paper

On 21 November 1995, the occultation of the star GSC5249-01240 by Saturn and its rings was observed with the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope (Bosh and Olkin, this conference). The low opening angle (B ~ 3deg ) geometry makes these occultation observations unusually sensitive to inclinations. We used these data along with previous occultation data (e.g. Harrington et al. 1993, Icarus 103, 235) to determine a kinematic model for the F ring. We established a non-zero value for the inclination of the F ring with a 4-sigma significance level. This is the first detection of an inclined ring feature in the Saturn system. Although Uranus is known to have narrow and inclined rings, until now we had not observed such rings at Saturn. This detection is an important improvement in the kinematic models of Saturn's F ring, and these models are the basis of dynamical studies. We will address the implications of the F ring kinematic model on the 1995 Saturn ring-plane crossing observations. In particular, we will examine the role the F ring may play in the observed times of ring-plane crossing for the east and west ring ansae during the May and August events (Bosh and Rivkin 1996, Science 272, 518; Nicholson et al. 1996, Science 272, 509).

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring 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 The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Inclination of Saturn's F Ring will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1461776