Three tenuous rings/arcs for three tiny moons

Using Cassini images, we examine the faint material along the orbits of Methone, Anthe and Pallene, three small moons that reside between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. A continuous ring of material covers the orbit of Pallene; it is visible at extremely high phase angles and appears to be local...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962) N.Y. 1962), 2009-02, Vol.199 (2), p.378-386
Hauptverfasser: Hedman, M.M., Murray, C.D., Cooper, N.J., Tiscareno, M.S., Beurle, K., Evans, M.W., Burns, J.A.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Using Cassini images, we examine the faint material along the orbits of Methone, Anthe and Pallene, three small moons that reside between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. A continuous ring of material covers the orbit of Pallene; it is visible at extremely high phase angles and appears to be localized vertically to within ±25 km of Pallene's inclined orbit. By contrast, the material associated with Anthe and Methone appears to lie in longitudinally confined arcs. The Methone arc extends over ∼10° in longitude around the satellite's position, while the Anthe arc reaches ∼20° in length. The extents of these arcs are consistent with their confinement by nearby corotation eccentricity resonances with Mimas. Anthe has even been observed to shift in longitude relative to its arc in the expected manner given the predicted librations of the moon.
ISSN:0019-1035
1090-2643
DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.11.001