Changes in a Dusty Ringlet in the Cassini Division after 2010

Abstract

A dusty ringlet designated R/2006 S3, also known as the "Charming Ringlet", is located around 119,940 km from the center of Saturn within the Laplace Gap in the Cassini Division. Prior to 2010, the ringlet had a simple radial profile and a predictable eccentric shape with two components, one forced by solar radiation pressure and the other freely precessing around the planet. However, observations made by the Cassini spacecraft since late 2012 revealed a shelf of material extending inwards from the ringlet that was not present in the earlier observations. Closer inspection of images obtained after 2012 shows that sometime between 2010 and 2012 the freely-precessing component of the ringlet's eccentricity increased by over 50%, and that for at least 3 years after 2012 the ringlet had longitudinal brightness variations that rotated around the planet at a range of rates corresponding to roughly 60 km in orbital semi-major axis. Some event therefore disturbed this ringlet between 2010 and late 2012.

23 Pages, 11 Figures, accepted for Publication in PSJ, Small corrections made to fix typos identified in proofs

References in corpus (6)

• Debris Disc Constraints on Planetesimal Formation
• The shape and dynamics of a heliotropic dusty ringlet in the Cassini Division
• The Brightening of Saturn's F Ring
• Corrugations and eccentric spirals in Saturn's D ring: New insights into what happened at Saturn in 1983
• Seasonal structures in Saturn's dusty Roche Division correspond to periodicities of the planet's magnetosphere
• Bright clumps in the D68 ringlet near the end of the Cassini Mission

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Modeling Saturn's D68 clumps as a co-orbital satellite system