The Cassini spacecraft burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere years ago. But new images and data from it are still being analyzed.
Researchers have completed a catalog of data from 41 solar occultations of Saturn’s rings (when the rings are in front of the Sun) and reveal the frames seen in this report. The fact that the particles in the rings block some of the sunlight provides an important set of information.
The sizes of the particles that make up the rings, the density of the rings, and the properties inside these magnificent structures can be estimated from these observations. This important measurement is called optical depth. During an occultation, light from the background light source (the Sun in this case) is scattered or absorbed by particles in the rings. The amount of light is a direct measurement of optical depth.
Knowing the angle between the rings and Cassini provides three-dimensional information about the rings, and thanks to this information, the properties of the rings can be studied. In addition, researchers consider this data very important for learning how the rings are formed.
A researcher in the SwRI Department of Space Sciences, lead author Dr. “For almost two decades, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has shared the wonders of Saturn and its family of icy moons and signature rings, but we still don’t know for sure the origin of the ring system,” Stephanie Jarmak said in a statement. “The evidence is that the rings are relatively young. “It shows that it was formed from the destruction of an icy moon or a comet, but we need to have a good idea of the size of the particles that make up the rings to support any theory of origin.”
A different team of researchers recently suggested that the rings are the result of the extinction of an icy moon. This was notable as it could also explain another mystery about Saturn’s Neptune connection. These data can help test this hypothesis further.
Cassini records stellar occultations as well as solar occultations. Both datasets appear to be consistent with each other and provide important insights into the properties of the rings.
“Considering the wavelength of light from the Sun, these observations gave us an idea of Saturn’s rings and the smallest particle sizes,” Jarmak said. “UVIS detects dust particles at the micron level, identifying the origin of ring particles within the system, It can help us understand its activity and degradation.”
The dataset was published in the journal Icarus…
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