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| Titel |
The mass flux of micrometeoroids into the Saturn |
| VerfasserIn |
Sascha Kempf, Nicolas Altobelli, Mihaly Horanyi, Ralf Srama |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250099531
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-15324.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The origin of Saturn’s ring is still not known. There is an ongoing argument whether Saturn’s
ring are rather young or have been formed shortly after Saturn together with its satellites. The
water-ice rings contain about 5% rocky material resulting from continuous meteoroid
bombardment of the ring material with interplanetary micrometeoroids. Knowledge of the
incoming mass flux would allow to estimate the ring’s exposure time. Model calculations
suggest exposure times of 108 years implying a late ring formation. This scenario is
problematic because the tidal disruption of a Mimas-sized moon or of a comet
within the planet’s Roche zone would lead to a much larger rock content as observed
today.
Here we report on the first direct measurements of the meteoroid flux into the Saturnian
system by Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). We measured the impact speed vectors of
about 100 extrinsic micrometeoroids ≥ 2μm and determined their orbital elements. On the
basis of these measurements we determined the mass flux into the Saturnian system.
Our findings suggest a ring exposure time of 4.5 billion years and is in support of
an early ring generation from a proto-Titan during the formation of the Saturnian
system. |
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