The Composition of Saturn's Rings

✍ Scribed by F. Poulet; J.N. Cuzzi

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 247 KB
• Volume: 160
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.2002.6967

✦ Synopsis

A composite spectrum between 0.30 and 4.05 µm of Saturn's rings is analyzed using the Shkuratov scattering theory (Shkuratov et al. 1999, Icarus 137, 235-246). Several types of surface and composition are discussed. We demonstrate that both the strong reddening over the interval 0.3-0.7 µm and the water ice absorption features are well reproduced by an intimate ("salt-and-pepper") mixture of four coarse particles of two different materials: 93% are grains (typical sizes of 10, 200, and 2000 µm) of water ice containing a few percent of refractory organic solid (tholin) impurities within their bulk, and 7% are coarse grains of a dark material (amorphous carbon). The cosmogenic implications of the inferred composition are discussed.