Moonlets in planetaren Ringen: Implikationen für die Ringteilchendynamik?

• Applicant: Professor Frank Spahn, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 164011225

• Final Report Year: 2014

Final Report Abstract

In course of the DFG-funded Project Martin Seiß developed a non-harmonic and non-linear model describing the propeller wakes including dissipative wake-damping processes. Using this, he managed to explain the dynamical variability and non-harmonic shape of these waves; and to further constrain the masses of the A ring moons Pan and Daphnis as well as their orbital eccentricities. Furthermore, he contributed essentially to the development of a three-dimensional propeller model used to explain the propeller shadows observed by Cassini during Saturn’s equinox in August 2009. The latter results of the shadow-casting propellers has been elected (by Cassini-scientists council) as a so-called Science Nugget at the occasion of the Cassini-Science Spring Meeting (PSG-meeting) at Jet Propulsion Institute/NASA in Pasadena in Feb. 2013.

Publications

• Moonlet induced wakes in planetary rings: Analytical model including eccentric orbits of moon and ring particles. Icarus, 210: 298 - 317, November 2010
  M. Seiß, F. Spahn and J. Schmidt
  
• Hydrodynamics of Saturn’s dense rings. Mathematical Modeling of Natural Phenomena, 6(04): 191 - 218, 2011
  M. Seiß and F. Spahn
  
• Adhesion and collisional release of particles in dense planetary rings. Icarus, 218: 60 -68, March 2012
  A. Bodrova, J. Schmidt, F. Spahn, and N. V. Brilliantov
  
• Aggregates in strength and gravity regime: Particle sizes in Saturn’s rings. Icarus, 220: 660 -678, August 2012
  A. H. F. Guimaraes, N. Albers, F. Spahn, M. Seiß, E. Vieira-Neto, and N. V. Brilliantov
  
• Vertical relaxation of a moonlet-propeller in Saturn’s A ring. Astrophys. J. Lett., 765: L4, March 2013
  H. Hoffmann, M. Seiß, and F. Spahn