Related papers: Analyzing Bleriot's propeller gaps in Cassini NAC …
Seismology of the gas giants holds the potential to resolve long-standing questions about their internal structure and rotation state. We construct a family of Saturn interior models constrained by the gravity field and compute their…
The so-called "Charming Ringlet" (R/2006 S3) is a low-optical-depth, dusty ringlet located in the Laplace gap in the Cassini Division. This ringlet is particularly interesting because its radial position varies systematically with longitude…
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…
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…
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 perform axisymmetric hydrodynamical simulations that describe the nonlinear outcome of the viscous overstability in dense planetary rings. These simulations are particularly relevant for Cassini observations of fine-scale structure in…
Saturn's diffuse E ring consists of many tiny (micron and sub-micron) grains of water ice distributed between the orbits of Mimas and Titan. Various gravitational and non-gravitational forces perturb these particles' orbits, causing the…
"Propellers" in planetary rings are disturbances in ring material excited by moonlets that open only partial gaps. We describe a new type of co-orbital resonance that can explain the observed non-Keplerian motions of propellers. The…
In June 2015, Cassini high-resolution images of Saturn's limb southwards of the planet's hexagonal wave revealed a system of at least six stacked haze layers above the upper cloud deck. Here, we characterize those haze layers and discuss…
At the solar equinox in August 2009, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard Cassini showed the lowest Saturn's ring temperatures ever observed. Detailed radiative transfer models show that the observed equinox temperatures of…
We present observations at optical wavelengths with the Cassini Spacecraft's Imaging Science System of the Phoebe ring, a vast debris disk around Saturn that seems to be collisionally generated by its irregular satellites. The analysis…
Since 2004, observations of Saturn's F ring have revealed that the ring's core is surrounded by structures with radial scales of hundreds of kilometers, called "spirals" and "jets". Gravitational scattering by nearby moons was suggested as…
To explore the formation and properties of Saturn's G ring, we study the dynamics of micron-sized dust particles originating from the arc of debris near the inner edge of the ring. The dynamical evolution of particles due to various…
We use a state-of-the-art physics-based model of electromagnetic scattering to analyze average circular polarization ratios measured for the A and B rings of Saturn at a wavelength of 12.6 cm. This model is directly based on the Maxwell…
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.…
Images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft between 2012 and 2015 reveal a periodic brightness variation in a region of Saturn's D ring that previously appeared to be rather featureless. Furthermore, the intensity and radial wavenumber of…
We investigate the influence of collective self-gravity forces on the nonlinear, large-scale evolution of the viscous overstability in Saturn's rings. We numerically solve the axisymmetric hydrodynamic equations in the isothermal and…
Radio occultations of Saturn's main rings by spacecraft suggest a power law particle size-distribution down to sizes of the order of 1 cm (Marouf et al., 1983), (Zebker et al., 1985). The lack of optical depth variations between ultraviolet…
Saturn's F ring is subject to dynamic structural changes over short periods. Among the observed phenomena are diffuse extended bright clumps (ECs) ~ 3-40 degrees in longitudinal extent. These ECs appear, evolve, and disappear over a span of…
The origin and long-term evolution of Saturn's rings is still an unsolved problem in modern planetary science. In this chapter we review the current state of our knowledge on this long-standing question for the main rings (A, Cassini…