Hsiang-Wen Hsu, Jürgen Schmidt, Sascha Kempf, Frank Postberg, Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer, Martin Seiss, Holger Hoffmann, Marcia Burton, ShengYi Ye, William S. Kurth, Mihaly Horanyi, Nozair Khawaja, Frank Spahn, Daniel Schirdewahn, Luke Moore, Jeff Cuzzi, Geraint H. Jones, Ralf Srama
- Saturn’s main rings are composed of >95% water ice, and the nature of the remaining few percent has remained unclear. The Cassini spacecraft’s traversals between Saturn and its innermost D ring allowed its cosmic dust analyzer (CDA) to collect material released from the main rings and to characterize the ring material infall into Saturn. We report the direct in situ detection of material from Saturn’s dense rings by the CDA impact mass spectrometer. Most detected grains are a few tens of nanometers in size and dynamically associated with the previously inferred “ring rain.” Silicate and water-ice grains were identified, in proportions that vary with latitude. Silicate grains constitute up to 30% of infalling grains, a higher percentage than the bulk silicate content of the rings.
Metadaten| Author details: | Hsiang-Wen HsuORCiD, Jürgen SchmidtORCiD, Sascha KempfORCiD, Frank PostbergORCiD, Georg Moragas-KlostermeyerORCiD, Martin SeissORCiDGND, Holger HoffmannORCiDGND, Marcia Burton, ShengYi YeORCiD, William S. KurthORCiD, Mihaly Horanyi, Nozair Khawaja, Frank SpahnORCiDGND, Daniel SchirdewahnORCiD, Luke MooreORCiD, Jeff Cuzzi, Geraint H. JonesORCiD, Ralf SramaORCiDGND |
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| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat3185 |
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| ISSN: | 0036-8075 |
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| ISSN: | 1095-9203 |
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| Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30287635 |
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| Title of parent work (English): | Science |
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| Publisher: | American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science |
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| Place of publishing: | Washington |
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| Publication type: | Article |
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| Language: | English |
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| Date of first publication: | 2018/10/05 |
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| Publication year: | 2018 |
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| Release date: | 2021/09/13 |
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| Volume: | 362 |
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| Issue: | 6410 |
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| Number of pages: | 7 |
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| First page: | 49 |
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| Last Page: | + |
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| Funding institution: | NASANational Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); ESAEuropean Space Agency; Cassini project; NASA/ROSES-2015 [NNX16AI35G]; Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und RaumfahrtHelmholtz AssociationGerman Aerospace Centre (DLR) [OH 1401]; Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftGerman Research Foundation (DFG) [Sp384/33-1, Ho5720/1-1]; Academy of FinlandAcademy of Finland; German Research Foundation (DFG)German Research Foundation (DFG) [PO 1015/2-1, PO 1015/3-1]; DFGGerman Research Foundation (DFG) [PO 1015/4-1]; ERC consolidator grant [724908-Habitat-OASIS]; UK Science and Technology Facilities CouncilScience & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) |
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| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
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| DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 52 Astronomie / 520 Astronomie und zugeordnete Wissenschaften |
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