An Evolving View of Saturn's Dynamic Rings

作者：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; Sremcevic M; Tiscareno M S; Weiss J

来源：Science, 2010, 327(5972): 1470-1475.

DOI：10.1126/science.1179118

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.

• 出版日期2010-3-19
• 单位中国地震局