X-rays from Saturn and its Rings

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

0310 Airglow And Aurora, 6220 Jupiter, 6265 Planetary Rings, 7519 Flares, 7554 X Rays, Gamma Rays, And Neutrinos

Scientific paper

In January 2004 Saturn was observed by Chandra ACIS-S in two exposures, 00:06 to 11:00 UT on 20 January and 14:32 UT on 26 January to 01:13 UT on 27 January. Each continuous observation lasted for about one full Saturn rotation. These observations detected an X-ray flare from the Saturn's disk and indicate that the entire Saturnian X-ray emission is highly variable -- a factor of ~4 variability in brightness in a week time. The Saturn X-ray flare has a time and magnitude matching feature with the solar X-ray flare, which suggests that the disk X-ray emission of Saturn is governed by processes happening on the Sun. These observations also unambiguously detected X-rays from Saturn's rings. The X-ray emissions from rings are present mainly in the 0.45-0.6 keV band centered on the atomic O Kα fluorescence line at 525 eV: indicating the production of X-rays due to oxygen atoms in the water icy rings. The characteristics of X-rays from Saturn's polar region appear to be statistically consistent with those from its disk X-rays, suggesting that X-ray emission from the polar cap region might be an extension of the Saturn disk X-ray emission.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

X-rays from Saturn and its Rings 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 X-rays from Saturn and its Rings, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and X-rays from Saturn and its Rings will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1689145

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.