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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 35,
L04203,
5 PP., 2008
doi:10.1029/2007GL032726
Large-scale structure of Saturn's E-ring
Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany
Department of Space Physics, KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Budapest, Hungary
Geysers on the recently discovered, geologically active south-polar region of the moon Enceladus are now recognized as the dominant source of material in Saturn's E ring. The ring was traditionally thought to span the region between 3 to 8 R S , where R S is the radius of Saturn. However, new in situ dust measurements indicate that the density of small grains might continuously extend far beyond these boundaries, and the E ring could reach even beyond the orbit of Titan (20.3 R S ). We report on the modeling results of the long-term evolution of dust particles comprising the E ring to show that grains from Enceladus could indeed reach the outskirts of Saturn's magnetosphere.
Received 26 November 2007; accepted 25 January 2008; published 28 February 2008.
Citation: (2008), Large-scale structure of Saturn's E-ring, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L04203, doi:10.1029/2007GL032726.
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