Seeing ghosts - Photometry of Saturn's G Ring

Details Seeing ghosts - Photometry of Saturn's G Ring Seeing ghosts - Photometry of Saturn's G Ring

May 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993icar..103..124s&link_type=abstract

Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 103, no. 1, p. 124-143.

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49

Astronomical Photometry, Interplanetary Dust, Particle Size Distribution, Satellite Imagery, Saturn Rings, Data Bases, Dynamic Models, Pioneer 11 Space Probe, Voyager 1 Spacecraft, Voyager 2 Spacecraft, Saturn, Rings, G Ring, Photometry, Spacecraft Observations, Composition, Voyager 2 Mission, Dust, Particles, Grain Size, Distribution, Analysis, Origin, Source, Structure, Calculations, Parent Bodies, Perturbation, Model, Lifetime, Collisions, Thickness, Physical Properties, Hypotheses, Pioneer 11 Mission, M

Scientific paper

Saturn's faint and narrow G Ring is only visible to the eye in two Voyager images, each taken at a rather high solar phase angle of about 160 deg. In this paper we introduce a new photometric technique for averaging across multiple Voyager images, and use it to detect the G Ring at several additional viewing geometries. The resultant phase curve suggests that the G Ring is composed of dust particles obeying a very steep power-law size distribution. The dust is generally smaller than that seen in other rings, ranging down to 0.03 micron. The G Ring occupies the region between orbital radii 166,000 and 173,000 km, and has a peak somewhat closer to the inner edge. Based on these limits, we demonstrate that Voyager 2 passed through and directly sampled this ring during its 1981 encounter with Saturn. Combined analysis of additional data sets suggests that a population of larger bodies is also present in the G Ring; these bodies occupy a narrower band near the observed peak and are likely the source for the visible dust. Based on some preliminary dynamical models, we propose that these larger bodies represent leftover debris from the collisional breakup of a small moon in Saturn's distant past.

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