The Saturnian G-Ring: a Simple Story
Abstract
One of the most intriguing Saturnian rings is the G-ring, which is dusty, tenuous and not very well defined. According with the planetary rings formation models the collisions of meteorites on the satellites surface are the physical mechanism associated to the formation of tenuous rings. The dust particles generated by that process are distributed around the planetary body forming rings-like dusty bands. Collisions are probably responsible for the G-ring formation taking into account that a moonlet was detected in the densest region of the ring by the Cassini spacecraft and none moon has been sighted in its proximity by this probe. In this work a gravito-electrodynamical model has been used to study the dynamics of dust particles ejected from Aegaeon, the first moonlet discovered by Cassini instruments within the G-ring. The dynamics of dust has been analyzed as if each dust particle were a single-particle escaping from the Aegaeon surface to the Kronian magnetospheric environment. The solutions getting from the model showed confinement and escaping regions. In the first case the tiny dust particles could remain near the satellite forming the tenuous G-ring. Meanwhile, in the second one dust particles travel from the Saturnian magnetosphere to the interplanetary space as dust streams.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.P23D1817M
- Keywords:
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- 5465 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS Rings and dust;
- 6280 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS Saturnian satellites;
- 6015 PLANETARY SCIENCES: COMETS AND SMALL BODIES Dust;
- 6265 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS Planetary rings