Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring

Details Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p41d..01i&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P41D-01

Other

[5759] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Rings And Dust, [6265] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Planetary Rings, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

We have used imaging data taken by the Cassini spacecraft at a variety of wavelengths and scattering angles to estimate the total mass of solid material in the Enceladus plume. The data are from the public archive, but they have not been analyzed before with this objective in mind. The E ring, which Cassini has sampled using in situ observations (Kempf et al, 2008), provides a calibration check. We find that the brightness of the E ring varies with longitude, not only because of the viewing geometry, e.g., variations in scattering angle, but also because of some unknown intrinsic variability. Consistent with other studies (Hedman et al, 2009), we find that the size of particles in the plume decreases with distance from the surface of Enceladus. The production rate for particles - mass per unit time - is about equal to that of vapor, which was inferred by ultraviolet spectroscopy (Hansen et al, 2006, 2008). This high ice/vapor ratio poses a problem for theories in which particles form by condensation from the gas phase (Ingersoll and Pankine, 2009), and could indicate that particles are formed as spray from a bubbling or boiling liquid.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ice/vapor ratio in the Enceladus plumes and the mass of Saturn’s E ring will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1771986