Published February 25, 2005
| public
Journal Article
Ultraviolet Imaging Spectroscopy shows an active saturnian system
Abstract
Neutral oxygen in the saturnian system shows variability, and the total number of oxygen atoms peaks at 4 x 10^(34). Saturn's aurora brightens in response to solar-wind forcing, and the auroral spectrum resembles Jupiter's. Phoebe's surface shows variable water-ice content, and the data indicate it originated in the outer solar system. Saturn's rings also show variable water abundance, with the purest ice in the outermost A ring. This radial variation is consistent with initially pure water ice bombarded by meteors, but smaller radial structures may indicate collisional transport and recent renewal events in the past 10^7 to 10^8 years.
Additional Information
© 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 23 September 2004; accepted 2 December 2004 Published online 16 December 2004. Thanks to H. Tollerud for assistance with data processing, L. Bloom for producing the manuscript, and J. Cuzzi and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This work is one part of the Cassini UVIS investigation, supported by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Cassini mission.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 48750
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140820-160446094
- NASA Cassini Mission
- Created
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2014-08-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences