HR: 15:25h
AN: P53E-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Propellers: Theory and observation
AU: * Sremcevic, M
EM: Miodrag.Sremcevic@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: LASP/University of Colorado at Boulder, 392 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0392, United States
AB: The question on the origin and evolution of planetary rings is one of the prominent unsolved problems of planetary sciences with direct implications for planet-forming processes in preplanetary disks. The recent detection of four propeller-shaped features in Saturn's A ring (Tiscareno et al., 2006) proved the presence of large boulder-sized moonlets in the rings (Spahn & Sremcevic, 2000). Their very existence favors a ring creation in a catastrophic disruption of an icy satellite (Sremcevic et al., 2007) rather than a co-genetic origin with Saturn, since bodies of this size can hardly have accreted inside the rings. Here we will review the current state of theoretical modeling and Cassini observations.
DE: 6265 Planetary rings
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting