Alternate sources of Nitrogen in the Kronian magnetosphere

Physics

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[6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

The failure of Titan to live up to its anticipated role as main Nitrogen source for the magnetospheric plasma of Saturn was compensated by the output of the geysering satellite Enceladus located well inside the region of closed flux tubes. It was soon found by various researchers(Smith, Johnson inter alia) that the output of Enceladus was adequate to provide the N+ seen throughout the inner and outer magnetosphere. Recently, however, textit{Cassini/CAPS} data have shown that Rhea appears to be an independent source of Nitrogen plasma (vid. Reisenfeld et al. COSPAR 2011). In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that all the icy satellites in the inner magnetosphere are sources of N+. We find that for the case of Dione there is strong evidence for the existence of indigenous Nitrogen at the satellite with enhanced density around the orbit as well. The case of Tethys is ambiguous because of the dearth of Cassini/CAPSdata at the sole targeted encounter. Enhanced density and a significant N+ fraction are observed around the orbit but comparison to the immediate environment of the satellite is not possible.

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