Saturn's dust environment as seen by Cassini

Details Saturn's dust environment as seen by Cassini Saturn's dust environment as seen by Cassini

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008epsc.conf..370k&link_type=abstract

European Planetary Science Congress 2008, Proceedings of the conference held 21-25 September, 2008 in Münster, Germany. Online a

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Scientific paper

Besides the Earth, the Saturnian system is the most dusty place in our Solar system. Most of the Saturnian dust is organised in diffuse rings, which are composed of micronsized ice grains. In a plasma-rich environment such as that around Saturn, grains of this size are subject to both gravitational and non-gravitational perturbations. These perturbing forces alter the behaviour of individual grains, and thereby affect the ring's macroscopic properties as it extent and the ring particle size distribution. The physics of the diffuse optically thin G and E ring lying exterior to the main rings is entirely different. The lifetimes of the approximately micron-sized ring particles are short due to the action of radiation pressure, electromagnetic forces, and the plasma drag while collisions between the ring particles are of no relevance. The short lifetimes imply a replenishing source of fresh dust particles. In case of the vast E ring, the largest known planetary ring of the solar system, the icy moon Enceladus was early identified as the major source of fresh dust. Here we try to give an overview about the current knowledge about the Saturnian dust. The data transmitted by the Cassini spacecraft to Earth has already discredited many of our concepts of Saturn and its environment and there will be at least another three years of exploration by Cassini. Many Cassini findings as the ice-volcanism on Enceladus or the ring around the Saturnian moon Rhea came as a surprise. We are still at the beginning of our understanding of the physical processes relevant for the dust life cycle. However, Cassini has already provided us with some of the major pieces to accomplish a comprehensive picture of the Saturnian dust life cycle. In particular the Cassini dust detector submitted precious information about the spatial distribution, dynamical properties, size and charge distribution, and the chemical composition of the ring particles.

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