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  • Evolving View of Saturn's D...
    Cuzzi, J.N; Burns, J.A; Charnoz, S; Clark, R.N; Colwell, J.E; Dones, L; Esposito, L.W; Filacchione, G; French, R.G; Hedman, M.M; Kempf, S; Marouf, E.A; Murray, C.D; Nicholson, P.D; Porco, C.C; Schmidt, J; Showalter, M.R; Spilker, L.J; Spitale, J.N; Srama, R; Sremčević, M; Tiscareno, M.S; Weiss, J

    Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 03/2010, Letnik: 327, Številka: 5972
    Journal Article

    We review our understanding of Saturn's rings after nearly 6 years of observations by the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's rings are composed mostly of water ice but also contain an undetermined reddish contaminant. The rings exhibit a range of structure across many spatial scales; some of this involves the interplay of the fluid nature and the self-gravity of innumerable orbiting centimeter- to meter-sized particles, and the effects of several peripheral and embedded moonlets, but much remains unexplained. A few aspects of ring structure change on time scales as short as days. It remains unclear whether the vigorous evolutionary processes to which the rings are subject imply a much younger age than that of the solar system. Processes on view at Saturn have parallels in circumstellar disks.