The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets

Article

关键词: CASSINI IMAGING SCIENCE;    RADIO OCCULTATION;    SMALL SATELLITES;    ECCENTRICITY;    PROMETHEUS;    VOYAGER-2;    ORBITS;   

DOI  :  10.1038/nature06999

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

Saturn's narrow F ring exhibits several unusual features that vary on timescales of hours to years. These include transient clumps, a central core surrounded by a multistranded structure and a regular series of longitudinal channels associated with Prometheus, one of the ring's two 'shepherding' satellites. Several smaller moonlets and clumps have been detected in the ring's immediate vicinity, and a population of embedded objects has been inferred. Here we report direct evidence of moonlets embedded in the ring's bright core, and show that most of the F ring's morphology results from the continual gravitational and collisional effects of small satellites, often combined with the perturbing effect of Prometheus. The F- ring region is perhaps the only location in the Solar System where large- scale collisional processes are occurring on an almost daily basis.

【 授权许可】

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