Dynamik und Kinetik schmaler Staubringe

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frank Spahn, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 110570696

Saturn s ring system contains a number of narrow dust rings, such as the F ring, the Encke Gap ringlets, and several ringlets in the Cassini division. Already from Pioneer data (Cuzzi and Burns, 1988) it was concluded that the F ring assumes its peculiar clumpy and twisted appearance due to the gravitational action and interaction of a belt of small unseen moons embedded in a dusty ring, a scenario confirmed by data from the Cassini mission (Murray et al., 2008). A very similar behavior is found for the central dusty ring in the Encke Gap (Ferrari and Brahic, 1997; Hahn, 2006) where the presence of a belt of small embedded moons has been conjectured to serve as main sources for the observed dust near Pan s orbit. In this project we will develop a model for the kinetic balance of dust production, dynamical evolution, and loss mechanisms for such a belt of moons. This has not been studied so far. Detailed modeling and comparison to Cassini observations will help to constrain the parameters of the physics of dust creation, the properties of the dust, as well as the distribution and dynamics of the moons. In this way it will be possible to identify common physical processes in dust rings near the Roche limit - and last but not least - to detect yet unseen embedded moonlets.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Jürgen Schmidt, Ph.D.