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Dynamics of Saturn's F ring and satellites from Cassini images

卡西尼号图像中土星 F 环和卫星的动力学

基本信息

批准号：
ST/F002696/1
负责人：
Carl Murray
金额：
$ 40.24万
依托单位：
Queen Mary University of London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2008
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2008 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FF002696%2F1
关键词：
Dynamics Saturn ring satellites Cassini

项目摘要

Saturn's F ring poses the most severe test of our understanding of the gravitational interaction between planetary rings and small, adjacent satellites in processes that are analagous to those affecting protoplanets and the surrounding matertial out of which they accreted. Although its two 'shepherding' satellites, Prometheus and Pandora, exert detectable effects on the ring, there are several unusual features that make the ring puzzling. There is mounting evidence from Cassini occultation data of a population of small (<1km) moons orbiting near the ring. Furthermore, Cassini images show that large (~500km) distortions in the ring are consistent with the effect of large (~10km) objects in ring-crossing orbits. There are also smaller (~50km) distortions in the core of the ring consistent with embedded satellites (radius <1km) on orbits perturbed by Prometheus. The proposed research will undertake a complete survey of Cassini images of the F ring in order to (i) identify and improve the orbits of the large objects so that their interactions with the ring can be understood, (ii) identify and track the smaller objects to build up a picture of the population distribution and (iii) search for unusual features of the ring that suggest the existence of more embedded objects and explain the dynamical processes associated with them. Over the timescale of the grant Cassini will witness the closest approach between the F ring and the moon Prometheus when we expect the distortions in the ring to be at a maximum. An extended mission will mean that we will have 6 years of observations of the F ring. This will give us the opportunity to study and understand all the dynamical processes that affect the ring and thereby give us a unqiue insight into the more general problems of ring-satellite and protoplanet-disk interactions.

土星的F环对我们理解行星环和小的相邻卫星之间的引力相互作用提出了最严峻的考验，这些过程类似于那些影响原行星及其周围物质的过程。虽然它的两个“牧羊”卫星，普罗米修斯和潘多拉，对环产生了可检测的影响，但有几个不寻常的特征使环令人费解。卡西尼号的掩星数据中有越来越多的证据表明，在环附近有一群小卫星（小于1公里）。此外，卡西尼号的图像显示，环中的大变形（~ 500公里）与环交叉轨道中的大物体（~ 10公里）的影响一致。环的核心也有较小的扭曲（约50公里），与被普罗米修斯扰动的轨道上的嵌入式卫星（半径<1公里）一致。拟议的研究将对卡西尼号F环的图像进行全面调查，以便（一）确定和改进大型物体的轨道，以便了解它们与环的相互作用，（ii）识别和跟踪较小的物体，以建立人口分布图，以及（iii）寻找环的不寻常特征，这些特征表明存在更多的嵌入式物体，并解释与它们相关的动力学过程。在卡西尼号的时间尺度上，当我们预计环中的扭曲达到最大值时，它将见证F环和月球普罗米修斯之间最接近的方法。一个延长的使命将意味着我们将有6年的F环观测。这将使我们有机会研究和理解影响环的所有动力学过程，从而使我们对环-卫星和原行星-盘相互作用的更一般问题有一个独特的见解。