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Charged particle depletion surrounding Saturn's F ring - Evidence for a moonlet belt?An improved model of the Saturn magnetosphere and of the locations of known moons and rings is invoked in the present reconsideration of Pioneer 11 observations of five abrupt depletions in the flux of trapped magnetospheric electrons within a 2000-km-wide band around the F ring. It is inferred that the observed depletions of charged particles are caused by clumps of material with low optical depth; it is further hypothesized that these clumps are composed of regolith ejecta, are generated by collisions occurring within a belt of unseen, moonlet-scale (or smaller) objects occupying the entire radial region between Pandora and Prometheus. Attention is given to a self-consistent scenario in which these debris clouds are created, longitudinally spread, swept up onto belt object surfaces, and then thrown off by a subsequent collision.
Document ID
19880051931
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Burns, Joseph A.
(Cornell University Ithaca, NY, United States)
Date Acquired
August 13, 2013
Publication Date
May 1, 1988
Publication Information
Publication: Icarus
Volume: 74
ISSN: 0019-1035
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
88A39158
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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