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Enceladus's internal ocean and ice shell constrained from Cassini gravity, shape, and libration data

Bourgeois, Olivier; Massé, Marion; Čadek, Ondřej +8 more

The intense plume activity at the South Pole of Enceladus together with the recent detection of libration hints at an internal water ocean underneath the outer ice shell. However, the interpretation of gravity, shape, and libration data leads to contradicting results regarding the depth of ocean/ice interface and the total volume of the ocean. Her…

Flux transfer event observation at Saturn's dayside magnetopause by the Cassini spacecraft

Coates, Andrew J.; Arridge, Christopher S.; Waite, J. Hunter +6 more

We present the first observation of a flux rope at Saturn's dayside magnetopause. This is an important result because it shows that the Saturnian magnetopause is conducive to multiple X-line reconnection and flux rope generation. Minimum variance analysis shows that the magnetic signature is consistent with a flux rope. The magnetic observations w…

Hybrid simulation of Titan's interaction with the supersonic solar wind during Cassini's T96 flyby

Simon, Sven; Motschmann, Uwe; Neubauer, Fritz M. +5 more

By applying a hybrid (kinetic ions and fluid electrons) simulation code, we study the plasma environment of Saturn's largest moon Titan during Cassini's T96 flyby on 1 December 2013. The T96 encounter marks the only observed event of the entire Cassini mission where Titan was located in the supersonic solar wind in front of Saturn's bow shock. Our…

Saturn's quasiperiodic magnetohydrodynamic waves

Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K.; Hospodarsky, G. B. +11 more

Quasiperiodic ∼1 h fluctuations have been recently reported by numerous instruments on board the Cassini spacecraft. The interpretation of the sources of these fluctuations has remained elusive to date. Here we provide an explanation for the origin of these fluctuations using magnetometer observations. We find that magnetic field fluctuations at h…