English

A modified "Type I migration" model for propeller moons in Saturn's rings

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2015-06-05 v1

Abstract

We propose a mechanism for the observed non-keplerian motion (Tiscareno et al. 2010, ApJL) of "propeller" moons embedded in Saturn's rings. Our mechanism, in which radial variations in surface density -- external to, and unaffected by, the embedded moon -- result in an equilibrium semimajor axis for the moon due to "Type I" angular momentum exchange (Crida et al. 2010, AJ), provides a good fit to the observations. Future observations should distinguish between our model and others recently proposed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.4942,
  title  = {A modified "Type I migration" model for propeller moons in Saturn's rings},
  author = {Matthew S. Tiscareno},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.4942},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

10 pages, 7 figures; Accepted to Planetary & Space Science

R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:23:27.049Z