Ghosts in Saturn's rings

Details Ghosts in Saturn's rings Ghosts in Saturn's rings

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011sf2a.conf..383b&link_type=abstract

SF2A-2011: Proceedings of the Annual meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics Eds.: G. Alecian, K. Belkacem,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Saturn, Rings, Ghosts, Boulders, Moonlets

Scientific paper

Using UVIS stellar occultation data, we identified holes in ringlets or plateaus through which we directly observed the star. These "ghosts" are characterized by an isolated peak in photon counts with a height equal to photon counts in places without ring material. We suggest that ghosts are the signatures of ephemeral structures in the rings that could be due to particularly large clumps of material or small moonlets. The usual S-shape around a "propeller" moonlet coincides with the presence of a depletion zone around the clump: these moonlets are probably not massive enough to open full gaps, but could produce azimuthally limited holes in the rings like those seen in the UVIS occultation data. Numerical simulations of the interaction of a moonlet with ring particles have been conducted for different sizes of moonlets and particles, making it possible to extrapolate a relation between the radial extension of the depletion zone and the moonlet Hill radius. This model and our observed ghost widths allowed us to estimate an initial boulder size distribution following a power-law with a cumulative index Q=0.6 -- 0.8. This boulder size distribution appears not to match the particle size distribution models from Zebker et al., 1985 (Q=1.75 in the Cassini Division). Objects up to 15 m were found in the C ring and up to 60 meters in the Cassini Division.

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