Collisional Generation of Saturn's Largest Ring

Details Collisional Generation of Saturn's Largest Ring Collisional Generation of Saturn's Largest Ring

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.1902h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #19.02

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Saturn's three dozen known irregular satellites follow highly
eccentric and inclined orbits that loop around the planet at large
distances. Roughly three quarters of them have retrograde orbits,
circling the planet in a direction opposite the inner
satellites. Phoebe, with a radius of 107km, dominates this
population. The largest of the prograde satellites, most of which have
orbits inclined by 30-50 degrees, is 20km Siarnaq. Numerous past
collisions amongst satellites as well amongst the larger debris from
the satellites is likely responsible for the generation of the large torus
of dusty material recently discovered surrounding Saturn.
The satellite retrograde group has a combined surface area just 3%
larger than Phoebe itself while the prograde group has just 10% of
Phoebe's cross-sectional area. Accordingly, interplanetary impactors
should produce ten times the amount of retrograde debris as
prograde. The effects of mutual collisions amongst the orbiting
material complicate this picture. Assuming that the surface area of
centimeter to kilometer-sized debris mimics that of the larger
satellites, collisions amongst retrograde particles will be 100 times
more likely than prograde-prograde collisions with both occurring at
typical impact speeds of about a kilometer per second. In addition,
prograde-retrograde collisions occur at typical speeds of 3km/s making
them both more probable and more effective at producing debris than
collisions amongst similarly-orbiting bodies. These head-on collisions
likely dominate the production of debris in the Phoebe ring.

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