Saturn's F Ring In Vims Observations Of A Cassini Ring-plane Crossing

Details Saturn's F Ring In Vims Observations Of A Cassini Ring-plane Crossing Saturn's F Ring In Vims Observations Of A Cassini Ring-plane Crossing

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.5003s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #50.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1007

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Scientific paper

During a ring-plane crossing (RPX), Saturn's rings are viewed edge-on. As a result, the front of the F ring obscures the main rings--and the back of the back of the F ring is obscured by the main rings of Saturn--to varying degrees as the geometry of the observation changes. RPX observations therefore provide a chance to probe the vertical structure of the F ring. We present Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) data from a 1-2 December 2005 ring-plane crossing by the Cassini Spacecraft. This dataset includes 150 VIMS QUBs of one ansa of the ring. Each QUB includes an image of 12 by 64 pixels at each of 352 wavelengths from 0.35 to 5.1 microns. The QUBs were taken at intervals of less than 10 minutes as Cassini passed from the north (unlit) side of the rings to the south (sunlit) side (solar B=-19.5°) with spacecraft ring-opening angles of 0.016° to -0.014°. The images closest to RPX have ring-opening angles of 0.0000067°. The size of one pixel on the rings is 1000 km, so the rings are vertically unresolved. The unprecedented temporal resolution in this dataset allows us to observe a sudden brightening of the rings just before RPX, which is caused by the back of the F ring emerging from behind the main rings. Another feature in the lightcurve is due to a cluster of four clumps orbiting in the F ring. We present spectroscopy of the ring system and its variation with position in the rings and with time. We interpret the spectra in terms of differing contributions from the main rings and the F ring.
This research is supported by the Mead Witter Foundation.

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