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Related papers: The population of propellers in Saturn's A Ring

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We report the discovery of several large "propeller" moons in the outer part of Saturn's A ring, objects large enough to be followed over the 5-year duration of the Cassini mission. These are the first objects ever discovered that can be…

Hundred meter sized objects have been identified by the Cassini spacecraft in Saturn's A ring through the so-called "propeller" features they create in the ring. These moonlets should migrate, due to their gravitational interaction with the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-19 A. Crida , J. C. B. Papaloizou , H. Rein , S. Charnoz , J. Salmon

The Cassini spacecraft discovered a propeller-shaped structure in Saturn's A ring. This propeller structure is thought to be formed by gravitational scattering of ring particles by an unseen embedded moonlet. Self-gravity wakes are…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-27 Shugo Michikoshi , Eiichiro Kokubo

We describe a powerful signal processing method, the continuous wavelet transform, and use it to analyze radial structure in Cassini ISS images of Saturn's rings. Wavelet analysis locally separates signal components in frequency space,…

Among the great discoveries of the Cassini mission are the propeller-shaped structures created by small moonlets embedded in Saturn's dense rings. We analyze images of the sunlit side of Saturn's outer A ring, which show the propeller…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-11-14 Holger Hoffmann , Michael Seiler , Martin Seiß , Frank Spahn

We have developed a semi-analytic method of parameterizing N-body simulations of self-gravity wakes in Saturn's rings, describing their properties by means of only 6 numbers: 3 optical depths and 3 weighting factors. These numbers are…

We analyze several thousand Cassini ISS images in order to study the inner edge of the Keeler gap in Saturn's outer A ring. We find strong evidence for an m=32 perturbation with a mean amplitude of radial variation of 4.5 km. Phase analysis…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-09-08 Radwan Tajeddine , Philip D. Nicholson , Matthew S. Tiscareno , Matthew M. Hedman , Joseph A. Burns , Maryame El Moutamid

The Iapetus -1:0 nodal bending wave, the first spiral wave ever described in Saturn's rings, has been seen again for the first time in 29 years. We demonstrate that it is in fact the nodal bending wave, not the 1:0 apsidal density wave as…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Matthew S. Tiscareno , Matthew M. Hedman , Joseph A. Burns , John W. Weiss , Carolyn C. Porco

Saturn's C ring contains multiple spiral patterns that appear to be density waves driven by periodic gravitational perturbations. In other parts of Saturn's rings, such waves are generated by Lindblad resonances with Saturn's various moons,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 M. M. Hedman , P. D. Nicholson

Small (~50km scale), irregular features seen in Cassini images to be emanating from Saturn's F ring have been termed mini-jets by Attree et al. (2012). One particular mini-jet was tracked over half an orbital period, revealing its evolution…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-12-21 Nicholas O. Attree , Carl D. Murray , Gareth A. Williams , Nicholas J. Cooper

A new model for the shape of the prominent eccentric ringlet in the gap exterior to Saturn's B-ring is developed based on Cassini imaging observations taken over about 8 years. Unlike previous treatments, the new model treats each edge of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-31 Joseph N. Spitale , Joseph M. Hahn

Certain regions of Saturn's rings exhibit periodic opacity variations with characteristic radial wavelengths of up to a few hundred meters that have been attributed to viscous overstabilities. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-19 M. M. Hedman , P. D. Nicholson , H. Salo

Certain spiral density waves in Saturn's rings are generated through resonances with planetary normal modes, making them valuable probes of Saturn's internal structure. Previous research has primarily focused on the rotation rates of these…

The Encke Gap is a 320-km-wide opening in Saturn's outer A ring that contains the orbit of the small moon Pan and an array of dusty features composed of particles less than 100 microns across. In particular, there are three narrow ringlets…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 M. M. Hedman , J. A. Burns , D. P. Hamilton , M. R. Showalter

Many small moonlets, creating propeller structures, have been found in Saturn's rings by the Cassini spacecraft. We study the dynamical evolution of such 20-50m sized bodies which are embedded in Saturn's rings. We estimate the importance…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2010-11-23 Hanno Rein , John C. B. Papaloizou

We study the vertical extent of propeller structures in Saturn's rings. Our focus lies on the gap region of the propeller and on non-inclined propeller moonlets. In order to describe the vertical structure of propellers we extend the model…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2012-08-24 Holger Hoffmann , Frank Spahn , Martin Seiß

Voyager images and Cassini occultation data have previously shown that the behavior of the outer edge of Saturn's massive B ring is determined only in part by a static response to the 2:1 inner Lindblad resonance with Mimas. In Cassini…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2010-11-11 Joseph N. Spitale , Carolyn C. Porco

The Cassini Division in Saturn's rings contains a series of eight named gaps, three of which contain dense ringlets. Observations of stellar occultations by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft have…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2010-01-07 M. M. Hedman , P. D. Nicholson , K. H. Baines , B. J. Buratti , C. Sotin , R. N. Clark , R. H. Brown , R. G. French , E. A. Marouf

Density waves in Saturn's rings are usually tightly wrapped spiral patterns generated by resonances with either Saturn's moons or structures inside the planet. However, between the Barnard and Bessel Gaps in the Cassini Division (i.e.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-02-27 M. M. Hedman , P. D. Nicholson

Recent studies of stellar occultations observed by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft have demonstrated that multiple spiral wave structures in Saturn's rings are probably generated by…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-24 M. M. Hedman , P. D. Nicholson , R. G. French
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