Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5103m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #51.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.578
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The spokes in Saturn's B ring, which have been absent since the Hubble Space Telescope last imaged them in 1998, were finally observed by the Cassini spacecraft in September 2005. These new spokes appeared in 3 consecutive Cassini ISS images spanning 27 minutes taken of the dark (north)side of the rings. They are approximately 6000 km in length, 1000 km wide and have contrast on the order of 20%. They appear nearly radial in the first image, indicating that they are likely quite young, and are located azimuthally within 30 degrees of the center of the magnetic field sector which gives rise to the peak Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) as observed by Cassini (Kurth et al., Geophys. Res. Let., submitted, 2006), indicating a relationship to the magnetic field consistent with Voyager results (Porco and Danielson, Astron. J., 1982).
Our kinematic analysis of these new spokes shows that their motions deviate slightly from Keplerian. We show that this is consistent with the planet's electric and magnetic fields acting on the negatively charged dust particles which comprise the spokes. Some theories of spoke formation suggest that spokes will become visible with greater frequency during Cassini's upcoming high orbital inclination sequence which began in late July. We will present any observations and analyses of newly sighted spokes as well.
Mitchell Colin
Porco Carolyn C.
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