HR: 08:20h
AN: P51C-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Splendor in the Rings...as Seen by the Cassini Imaging Science Experiment
AU: * Porco, C
EM: carolyn@ciclops.org
AF: CICLOPS/Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Brahic, A
EM: brahic@discovery.saclay.cea.fr
AF: CEA Saclay, L'Orme Des Merisiers, Paris, 91191 France
AU: Burns, J
EM: jab16@cornell.edu
AF: Cornell University, 328 Space Sciences Bldg., Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Dones, L
EM: luke@boulder.swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302 United States
AU: Murray, C
EM: c.d.murray@qmul.ac.uk
AF: Queen Mary, University of London, London, E1 4NS United Kingdom
AU: Spitale, J
EM: spitale@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu
AF: CICLOPS/Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Tiscareno, M
EM: matthewt@astro.cornell.edu
AF: Cornell University, 328 Space Sciences Bldg., Ithaca, NY 14853 United States
AU: Charnoz, S
EM: charnoz@cea.fr
AF: CEA Saclay, L'Orme Des Merisiers, Paris, 91191 France
AU: Beurle, K
EM: k.beurle@qmul.ac.uk
AF: Queen Mary, University of London, London, E1 4NS United Kingdom
AU: Evans, M
EM: m.w.evans@qmul.ac.uk
AF: Queen Mary, University of London, London, E1 4NS United Kingdom
AB: Since Cassini's approach to Saturn began in early February 2004, the Imaging Science experiment has collected multi-spectral observations of Saturn's rings at intermediate phase angles, images designed to search for previously unseen satellites near and within the ring system, images of known ring-region satellites for the purposes of orbit refinement, and a striking set of images acquired immediately after Cassini was placed in orbit, as the spacecraft flew across the unilluminated side of the rings, and then again, after it crossed the ring plane onto the illuminated side. New ring structures and objects have been found in the vicinity of the F ring, orbits for these objects as well as the F ring have been determined, the phase/color behavior of the rings has been extended into new geometries, and the highest resolution images have revealed a variety of features -- some brand new, and some previously known but seen now in greater two-dimensional detail -- all created by the perturbations of moons, both external and internal to the rings. Some of these features indicate the presence of unseen moons in ring gaps; analysis of others will allow reliable measures of ring viscosity and masses for the perturbing bodies. These new results and others, as well as their implications, will be discussed.
UR: http://ciclops.org
DE: 6265 Planetary rings
DE: 6275 Saturn
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting