Computer Science
Scientific paper
Oct 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1455m&link_type=abstract
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1455
Computer Science
Scientific paper
The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph has detected 27 statistically significant features in 101 occultations by Saturn's F ring since July 2004. Of those 27 features, 17 likely correspond to transient clumps of material. We calculate from these observations the total number and total mass of transient clumps in the F ring. Constraints from observations place an upper limit on the number and total mass of such clumps. In turn, an upper limit on mass indicates that the clumps are not solid, spherical objects, rather they are loosely-packed, triaxial ellipsoids elongated in azimuth and vertically flattened. The total mass of clumps in the F ring is thus 6.1 x 1014 kg, the equivalent of a 6.8 km icy moon with a density equivalent to that of Prometheus. The differences in optical depth and morphology of the 17 significant features considered here also lead us to believe porosity differences exist among clumps. We investigate how the size distribution of clumps of different porosities evolves and how compaction of such clumps could lead to denser states that resemble moonlets, which describes 2 of the 17 features observed. The results presented here lead to a better model of how transient clumps form, evolve, and survive.
Esposito W. L. W. L.
Meinke Bonnie K.
Miodrag Sremčević
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