The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets.
Saturn's narrow F ring exhibits several unusual features that vary on timescales of hours to years. These include transient clumps, a central core surrounded by a multistranded structure and a regular series of longitudinal channels associated with Prometheus, one of the ring's two 'shepherding' satellites. Several smaller moonlets and clumps have been detected in the ring's immediate vicinity, and a population of embedded objects has been inferred. Here we report direct evidence of moonlets embedded in the ring's bright core, and show that most of the F ring's morphology results from the continual gravitational and collisional effects of small satellites, often combined with the perturbing effect of Prometheus. The F-ring region is perhaps the only location in the Solar System where large-scale collisional processes are occurring on an almost daily basis.
Murray
Carl D
CD
Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK. c.d.murray@qmul.ac.uk
Beurle
Kevin
K
Cooper
Nicholas J
NJ
Evans
Michael W
MW
Williams
Gareth A
GA
Charnoz
Sébastien
S