Related papers: First observations of the Phoebe ring in optical l…

Nowadays, astronomers want to observe gaps in exozodiacal disks to confirm the presence of exoplanets, or even make actual images of these companions. Four hundred and fifty years ago, Jean-Dominique Cassini did a similar study on a closer…

The best constraints on the internal structures of giant planets have historically come from measurements of their gravity fields. These gravity data are inherently mostly sensitive to a planet's outer regions, providing only loose…

On June 12, 2007 the Cassini probe sent the images of a small moon of Saturn called Atlas which is located between the ring A and the small ring R/2004 S 1. These images have shown that the Atlas morphology is very different from other…

Over the last eight years, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) aboard the Cassini orbiter has returned hyperspectral images in the 0.35-5.1 micron range of the icy satellites and rings of Saturn. These very different objects…

We report the discovery of a low-surface-brightness (27.42 mag arcsec^(-2) in g band) nebula, which has a ring-like shape in the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey (BASS). Positive detections have been found in multiband data from far ultraviolet…

The Sun is located inside an extremely low density region of quite irregular shape called the Local Bubble. Close to the Local Bubble, there is an even larger cavity known as Loop I. A ring-like feature observed in X-ray and HI has been…

Using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) observed the Saturnian system for one rotation of the planet (~37 ks) on 20 January, 2004, and again on 26-27 January, 2004. In this letter we report…

As it has already done for Earth, the sun, and the stars, seismology has the potential to radically change the way the interiors of giant planets are studied. In a sequence of events foreseen by only a few, observations of Saturn's rings by…

JWST measured the infrared spectra of Saturn's rings and several of its small moons (Epimetheus, Pandora, Telesto and Pallene) as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247. The NIRSpec instrument obtained near-infrared spectra of the…

Until 2013, only the giant planets were known to host ring systems. In June 2013, a stellar occulation revealed the presence of narrow and dense rings around Chariklo, a small Centaur object that orbits between Saturn and Uranus. Meanwhile,…

In this paper, we introduce a simplified model to understand the location of Saturn's F ring. The model is a planar restricted five-body problem defined by the gravitational field of Saturn, including its second zonal harmonic $J_2$, the…

We have conducted an intensive search for any material that may orbit Rhea, using images obtained by the Cassini ISS narrow-angle camera. We find no evidence for any such material, contradicting an earlier and surprising inference that…

We present an extensive data set of ~150 localized features from Cassini images of Saturn's Ring A, a third of which are demonstrated to be persistent by their appearance in multiple images, and half of which are resolved well enough to…

Saturn's ionosphere is produced when the otherwise neutral atmosphere is exposed to a flow of energetic charged particles or solar radiation. At low latitudes the latter should result in a weak planet-wide glow in infrared (IR),…

Neptune's incomplete ring arcs have been stable since their discovery in 1984 by stellar occultation. Although these structures should be destroyed within a few months through differential Keplerian motion, imaging data over the past couple…

We investigate whether rings around extrasolar planets could be detected from those planets' transit lightcurves. To this end we develop a basic theoretical framework for calculating and interpreting the lightcurves of ringed planet…

In this article we explore the aspect of the F ring with respect to the anti-alignment configuration between the ring and Prometheus. We focus our attention on the shape of the F ring's azimuthal channels which were first reported by Porco…

Aims. To investigate the mid-infrared (MIR) characteristics of Saturn's rings. Methods. We collected and analyzed MIR high spatial resolution images of Saturn's rings obtained in January 2008 and April 2005 with COMICS mounted on Subaru…

The origin of rings around giant planets remains elusive. Saturn's rings are massive and made of 90-95% of water ice. In contrast, the much less massive rings of Uranus and Neptune are dark and likely to have higher rock fraction. Here we…

The first observations of Saturn's visible-wavelength aurora were made by the Cassini camera. The aurora was observed between 2006 and 2013 in the northern and southern hemispheres. The color of the aurora changes from pink at a few hundred…