Title
An Evolving View of Saturn's Dynamic Rings
Abbreviated Journal Title
Science
Keywords
PROMETHEUS-PANDORA SYSTEM; SELF-GRAVITY WAKES; F-RING; B-RING; VISCOUS; OVERSTABILITY; RADIAL STRUCTURE; CASSINI VIMS; A-RING; MOONLETS; SATELLITES; Multidisciplinary Sciences
Abstract
We review our understanding of Saturn's rings after nearly 6 years of observations by the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's rings are composed mostly of water ice but also contain an undetermined reddish contaminant. The rings exhibit a range of structure across many spatial scales; some of this involves the interplay of the fluid nature and the self-gravity of innumerable orbiting centimeter- to meter-sized particles, and the effects of several peripheral and embedded moonlets, but much remains unexplained. A few aspects of ring structure change on time scales as short as days. It remains unclear whether the vigorous evolutionary processes to which the rings are subject imply a much younger age than that of the solar system. Processes on view at Saturn have parallels in circumstellar disks.
Journal Title
Science
Volume
327
Issue/Number
5972
Publication Date
1-1-2010
Document Type
Review
Language
English
First Page
1470
Last Page
1475
WOS Identifier
ISSN
0036-8075
Recommended Citation
"An Evolving View of Saturn's Dynamic Rings" (2010). Faculty Bibliography 2010s. 76.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2010/76
Comments
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