The Fine Structure of the Saturnian Ring System

A dust disc within a planetary magnetosphere constitutes a novel type of dust-ring current. Such an azimuthal current carrying dust disc is subject to the dusty plasma analog of the well known finite-resistivity ‘tearing’ mode instability in regular plasma current sheets, at long wavelengths. It is proposed that the presently observed fine ringlet structure of the Saturnian ring system is a relic of this process operating at cosmogonic times and breaking up the initial proto-ring (which may be regarded as an admixture of fine dust and plasma) into an ensemble of thin ringlets. It is shown that this instability developes at a rate that is many orders of magnitude faster than any other known instability, when the disc thickness reaches a value that is comparable to its present observed value.