Large-scale structure of Saturn's E-ring

Abstract

Geysers on the recently discovered, geologically active south-polar region of the moon Enceladus are now recognized as the dominant source of material in Saturn's E ring. The ring was traditionally thought to span the region between 3 to 8 R _S , where R _S is the radius of Saturn. However, new in situ dust measurements indicate that the density of small grains might continuously extend far beyond these boundaries, and the E ring could reach even beyond the orbit of Titan (20.3 R _S ). We report on the modeling results of the long-term evolution of dust particles comprising the E ring to show that grains from Enceladus could indeed reach the outskirts of Saturn's magnetosphere.