Saturn's E Ring
Saturn's E Ring
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土星的E环
DOI：
10.1017/s025292110010106x
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发表时间：
1982
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
L. Wasserman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
W. Baum;T. Kreidl;L. Wasserman
本文介绍了1980年3月土星环面相交时，由地面CCD系统观测到的土星纤细的E环。这些观测是通过安装在洛厄尔天文台1.8米珀金斯反射镜上的CCD系统进行的，使用焦平面掩模后面的光瞳掩模来抑制望远镜的衍射。对CCD图像的光度分析揭示了光环的边缘亮度分布，从3个土星半径的距离开始，在土卫二轨道附近以大约4个土星半径急剧达到峰值，然后减小到超过8个土星半径的距离。此外，在土卫二之外，可以观察到光环的边缘宽度随着径向距离的增加而增加，在土星半径为7的情况下达到近5角秒。观测表明，一方面，E环与土卫二有关，可能代表了从卫星上喷出的物质，另一方面，该环处于演化的早期阶段。
Observations of the tenuous E ring of Saturn made by an earth-based CCD system at the time of the ring-plane crossing of March 1980 are presented. The observations were made with the CCD system attached to the 1.8-m Perkins reflector at Lowell Observatory using a pupil mask behind a focal plane mask to suppress telescopic diffraction. Photometric analysis of the CCD images reveal the edge-on brightness profile of the ring, beginning at a distance of 3 Saturn radii, to peak sharply in the vicinity of the orbit of Enceladus at about 4 Saturn radii, then decrease to a distance of over 8 Saturn radii. In addition, beyond Enceladus, the edge-on width of the ring is observed to increase with radial distance, reaching nearly 5 arcsec at 7 Saturn radii. Observations suggest, on the one hand, that the E ring is associated with Enceladus and possibly represents material ejected from the satellite, and on the other, that the ring is at an early stage in its evolution.