An Evolving View of Saturn's Dynamic Rings

被引：69

作者：

Cuzzi, J. N. ^{[1
]}

Burns, J. A. ^{[2
]}

Charnoz, S. ^{[3
]}

Clark, R. N. ^{[4
]}

Colwell, J. E. ^{[5
]}

Dones, L. ^{[6
]}

Esposito, L. W. ^{[7
]}

Filacchione, G. ^{[8
]}

French, R. G. ^{[9
]}

Hedman, M. M. ^{[2
]}

Kempf, S. ^{[10
]}

Marouf, E. A. ^{[11
]}

Murray, C. D. ^{[12
]}

Nicholson, P. D. ^{[2
]}

Porco, C. C. ^{[13
]}

Schmidt, J. ^{[14
]}

Showalter, M. R. ^{[15
]}

Spilker, L. J. ^{[16
]}

Spitale, J. N. ^{[13
]}

Srama, R. ^{[10
]}

Sremcevic, M.

Tiscareno, M. S. ^{[2
]}

Weiss, J. ^{[13
,17
]}

机构：

[1] NASA, Ames Res Ctr, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA

[2] Cornell Univ, Dept Astron, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

[3] Univ Paris Diderot, CEA, CNRS, Lab Astrophys Instrumentat Modelisat, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France

[4] US Geol Survey, Denver, CO 80225 USA

[5] Univ Cent Florida, Dept Phys, Orlando, FL 32816 USA

[6] SW Res Inst, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO 80302 USA

[7] Univ Colorado, Atmospher & Space Phys Lab, Boulder, CO 80309 USA

[8] Ist Astrofis Spaziale & Fis Cosm, I-00133 Rome, Italy

[9] Wellesley Coll, Dept Astron, Wellesley, MA 02481 USA

[10] Max Planck Inst Kernphys, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

[11] San Jose State Univ, Dept Elect Engn, San Jose, CA 95192 USA

[12] Queen Mary Univ London, Astron Unit, London E1 4NS, England

[13] Space Sci Inst, Cassini Imaging Cent Lab Operat CICLOPS, Boulder, CO 80301 USA

[14] Univ Potsdam, Inst Phys & Astron, Potsdam, Germany

[15] SETI Inst, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

[16] CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA

[17] Carleton Coll, Northfield, MN 55057 USA

来源：

SCIENCE | 2010年 / 327卷 / 5972期

基金：

英国科学技术设施理事会;

关键词：

SELF-GRAVITY WAKES; F-RING; VISCOUS OVERSTABILITY; RADIAL STRUCTURE; B-RING; MOONLETS; PROMETHEUS; ACCRETION; EVOLUTION; WAVES;

D O I：

10.1126/science.1179118

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

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.

引用

页码：1470 / 1475

页数：6

共 69 条

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