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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 14: Planets and Small Bodies III
EP 14.7: Talk
Thursday, April 2, 2009, 17:30–17:45, HS-Ost Pharmazie
Saturn's E ring as seen by the Cassini dust detector — •Sascha Kempf1, Ralf Srama1, Sean Hsu1, Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer1, Frank Postberg1, Peter Strub1, Jürgen Schmidt2, and Frank Spahn2 — 1MPI für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany — 2Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
The data returned by the Cassini spacecraft drastically changed our picture of Saturn's diffuse E ring - the largest known ring in the Solar system. Since Cassini is equipped with a dust detector it became possible for the first time to investigate the evolution cycle of the Saturnian dust. There are two processes feeding the ring with fresh dust: collisions of micrometeoroids with the surfaces of icy moons and dust injection by the recently discovered ice volcanoes on the moon Enceladus. After injection into the ring the particles spend most of their lifespan as ring particles. Finally, the grains get lost by collisions with the main rings or with the moons. More interesting, some of the ring particles interact strongly with Saturn's magnetic field and will finally form fast dust streams, which were discovered by Cassini during her approach to Saturn. We are still at the beginning of our understanding of the physical processes relevant for the dust life cycle. However, Cassini already provided us with some of the major pieces to accomplish a comprehensive picture. Here, on numerical simulations of the long term evolution of ring particles, which are based on most recent Cassini data. We show that most of the ring particles slowly migrate outwards until they get locked in the vicinity of the Rhea orbit.