Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p33a1562k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P33A-1562
Physics
[6015] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Dust, [6022] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Impact Phenomena, [6063] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Volcanism, [6265] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Planetary Rings
Scientific paper
In the light of the Cassini mission to Saturn, the moon Enceladus turned out to be one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system. Data returned by several instruments on the spacecraft provide compelling evidence that this moon is unusually active and is capable of maintaining a pronounced ice volcanism. In particular, measurements of the spatial distribution of the plume particles recorded by Cassini's dust detector CDA provided the first evidence for a local source of ice grains in the moon's south polar terrain. However, atmosphere-free bodies like Enceladus are also expected to maintain a dust exosphere populated by ejecta particles produced by meteoroid impacts onto the moon's surface. Surprisingly, close Cassini flybys on the Saturnian moons Rhea, Dione, and Enceladus provided no unambiguous evidence for a dust exosphere around these moons. This is in contrast to the predictions by the standard model for ejecta exospheres, which matches the density profiles of the exospheres of the Galilean satellites measured by the Galileo dust detector. Knowledge of the contribution of ejecta particles to the Enceladus mass production is of great importance for estimating the minimum duration of the Enceladus plume activity as well as the age of Saturn's E ring. To this aim we reanalyzed data obtained during close Cassini flybys at Enceladus and Rhea. We also present new measurements of the radial ring profile, which shows no density enhancements at the orbital distances of the embedded ring moons Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Our analysis suggests that the vast majority of the ring particles originates from the Enceladus dust plume.
Horanyi Mihaly
Kempf Sascha
Postberg Frank
Schmidt Jonas
Spahn Frank
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