Stellar occultations of planetary rings: from Palomar to Cassini - Phil ...
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 10 Φεβ 2017
Chance
observations of stars as they pass behind planets have provided some of
our most valuable data on the structure of planetary ring systems,
beginning with the discovery of the uranian rings with the Kuiper
Airborne Observatory in 1977. As a graduate student at Caltech in the
70s, I became involved first in studies of the dynamically-curious
uranian rings at Mount Palomar and later in unraveling the story of the
even more baffling ring arcs of Neptune. I will review some of the
highlights of this early work, which led to my current involvement in
the Cassini mission at Saturn, observing stellar occultations with the
VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) instrument. Over 150
such occultations have been observed over the past 12 years, leading to
the discovery and/or characterization of such novel features as
self-gravity wakes, numerous density and bending waves, eccentric and
inclined ringlets, `normal modes’ on gap edges and instances of `viscous
overstability’ in denser regions of the rings. Our ring observations
have also provided insights into the internal structure of Saturn
itself.
observations of stars as they pass behind planets have provided some of
our most valuable data on the structure of planetary ring systems,
beginning with the discovery of the uranian rings with the Kuiper
Airborne Observatory in 1977. As a graduate student at Caltech in the
70s, I became involved first in studies of the dynamically-curious
uranian rings at Mount Palomar and later in unraveling the story of the
even more baffling ring arcs of Neptune. I will review some of the
highlights of this early work, which led to my current involvement in
the Cassini mission at Saturn, observing stellar occultations with the
VIMS (Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) instrument. Over 150
such occultations have been observed over the past 12 years, leading to
the discovery and/or characterization of such novel features as
self-gravity wakes, numerous density and bending waves, eccentric and
inclined ringlets, `normal modes’ on gap edges and instances of `viscous
overstability’ in denser regions of the rings. Our ring observations
have also provided insights into the internal structure of Saturn
itself.
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