An evolving view of Saturn’s dynamic rings
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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.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | An evolving view of Saturn’s dynamic rings |
| Series title | Science |
| DOI | 10.1126/science.1179118 |
| Volume | 327 |
| Issue | 5972 |
| Year Published | 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| Contributing office(s) | Crustal Geophysics and Geochemistry Science Center |
| Description | 6 p. |
| First page | 1470 |
| Last page | 1475 |
| Other Geospatial | Saturn |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |