Saturn Ring Particles as Dynamic Ephemeral Bodies
Saturn Ring Particles as Dynamic Ephemeral Bodies
复制标题
作为动态短暂体的土星环粒子
作者：
D. Davis;S. Weidenschilling;C. Chapman;Richard Greenberg
虽然土星环在罗氏带内，但厘米大小的颗粒在数周的时间尺度上很容易聚集成直径数米的大聚集体。当潮汐应力超过它们非常低的强度时，这些聚集体就会被破坏；因此，环系统的大部分质量都在不断地通过一群不断形成和解体的大型“动态短暂体”进行处理。这些大的聚集体根本不像通常用于模拟土星环动力学的理想冰球。它们的恢复系数低，因此它们在环平面上形成单层。这些环的光学观测特征主要是由一群厘米大小的粒子所决定的。
Although Saturn's rings are within the Roche zone, the accretion of centimeter-sized particles into large aggregates many meters in diameter occurs readily, on a time scale of weeks. These aggregates are disrupted when tidal stresses exceed their very low strengths; thus most of the mass of the ring system is continually processed through a population of large "dynamic ephemeral bodies," which are continually forming and disintegrating. These large aggregates are not at all like the idealized ice spheres often used in modeling Saturn's ring dynamics. Their coefficient of restitution is low, hence they form a monolayer in the ring plane. The optically observable characteristics of the rings are dominated by the swarm of centimeter-sized particles.