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Planetary RingsJust over two decades ago, Jim Pollack made a critical contribution to our understanding of planetary ring particle properties, and resolved a major apparent paradox between radar reflection and radio emission observations. At the time, particle properties were about all there were to study about planetary rings, and the fundamental questions were, why is Saturn the only planet with rings, how big are the particles, and what are they made of? Since then, we have received an avalanche of observations of planetary ring systems, both from spacecraft and from Earth. Meanwhile, we have seen steady progress in our understanding of the myriad ways in which gravity, fluid and statistical mechanics, and electromagnetism can combine to shape the distribution of the submicron-to-several-meter size particles which comprise ring systems into the complex webs of structure that we now know them to display. Insights gained from studies of these giant dynamical analogs have carried over into improved understanding of the formation of the planets themselves from particle disks, a subject very close to Jim's heart. The now-complete reconnaissance of the gas giant planets by spacecraft has revealed that ring systems are invariably found in association with families of regular satellites, and there is ark emerging perspective that they are not only physically but causally linked. There is also mounting evidence that many features or aspects of all planetary ring systems, if not the ring systems themselves, are considerably younger than the solar system
Document ID
20020005141
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1994
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: 1994 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 5, 1994
End Date: December 9, 1994
Sponsors: American Geophysical Union
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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