Mimas at Many Wavelengths and Many Angles

Details Mimas at Many Wavelengths and Many Angles Mimas at Many Wavelengths and Many Angles

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p31b1529b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P31B-1529

Other

[5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

Discovered by William Herschel during a Saturn ring plane crossing in 1789, Mimas is exceedingly difficult to observe from Earth due to scattered light from Saturn. It is also difficult to plan a targeted flyby with a spacecraft; it was the only major satellite not to have a close encounter by the Cassini spacecraft. Observations of the moon during ring plane crossings established that it was more reflective than any of the icy satellites of Saturn, except Enceladus, and that it exhibited only small albedo variegations (Buratti et al. 1998, Icarus 136, 223). According to models of the dynamics of the E-ring of Saturn (Hamilton and Burns, 1994, Science 264, 550) the trailing side of Mimas should contain accreted particles from that ring. New observations at opposition obtained by the Cassini Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument between 0.4 and 5.2 microns show the moon has a surge similar to that seen on other icy bodies, increasing in brightness by over 30% in the last five degrees. During the closest nontargeted flyby by Cassini on February 13, 2010, when the Cassini spacecraft approached within 9500 km of Mimas, maps of the moon were obtained by the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) between 0.4 and 5.0 microns. The only component identified so far on the surface is water ice. Unlike several of the other icy satellites, carbon dioxide and organics do not seem to be present. The 130-km crater Herschel shows significant differences in particle sizes when compared to the surrounding terrain. Ultraviolet maps of the satellite obtained by the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) suggest the accretion of E-ring particles on the trailing side, as predicted by Hamilton and Burns. Analysis of the depths of water ice absorption bands is also consistent with this scenario. Funded by NASA.

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