Other
Scientific paper
May 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dda....31.0808p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA Meeting #31, #08.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.865
Other
Scientific paper
The problem of Saturn's massive and youthful rings is well-know: Saturn's ring system (especially its A ring) could not survive for longer 100 millions years. This implies that the rings seem to have resulted from a very unlikely event, perhaps the destruction of a moon impact cometary or tidal disruption of a large comet passing within Saturn's Roche radius. I present another scenario of formation and evolution rings in the light of the dynamics of Prometheus-Pandora, Saturn's inner satellite pair. These moons have resonances with the rings, pull angular momentum out of the rings and therefore evolve outward. This effect is particulary rapid because Prometheus (larger and closer to the rings) should overtake Pandora in less 100 million years. The most likely outcome of the close encounter between these two satellites is a catastrophic disruption. This indicates that collisions between inner ring moons take place, and thus could have replenished the rings. As a result, the formation and evolution of Saturn's rings could be as follows. Sometime in the past (more than 108 years ago), a large disruption or a comet capture occurred, which created small satellites and ring particles. These pieces interacted between themselves and spread. The largest moons were pushed away from the rings at different rates until a close approach between two moons, most likely a collision, occurred. Either the satellites are disrupted and form debris, which could take the form of rings plus several large pieces (similar to the case of the orbital evolution of Prometheus and Pandora), or they accreted to form a new satellite. New satellites could reaccrete from a debris disk. In summary, this scenario involves recycling material, with repeated cycles from moons to rings and back to moons again. Such an evolution created the state that we see now. This work was performed while the author held a National Research Council- NASA ARC Research Associateship.
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