Search Publications
The identification of liquid ethane in Titan's Ontario Lacus
Sotin, C.; Barnes, J. W.; Brown, R. H. +7 more
Titan was once thought to have global oceans of light hydrocarbons on its surface, but after 40 close flybys of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, it has become clear that no such oceans exist. There are, however, features similar to terrestrial lakes and seas, and widespread evidence for fluvial erosion, presumably driven by precipitation of liquid…
Slow dust in Enceladus' plume from condensation and wall collisions in tiger stripe fractures
Schmidt, Jürgen; Spahn, Frank; Kempf, Sascha +1 more
One of the spectacular discoveries of the Cassini spacecraft was the plume of water vapour and icy particles (dust) originating near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data imply considerably smaller velocities for the grains than for the vapour, which has been difficult to understand. The gas and dust are too dilute in the plume to in…
Water vapour jets inside the plume of gas leaving Enceladus
Hansen, C. J.; Hendrix, A. R.; Colwell, J. E. +7 more
A plume of water vapour escapes from fissures crossing the south polar region of the Saturnian moon Enceladus. Tidal deformation of a thin surface crust above an internal ocean could result in tensile and compressive stresses that would affect the width of the fissures; therefore, the quantity of water vapour released at different locations in Enc…
An equatorial oscillation in Saturn's middle atmosphere
Strobel, D. F.; Flasar, F. M.; Bézard, B. +3 more
The middle atmospheres of planets are driven by a combination of radiative heating and cooling, mean meridional motions, and vertically propagating waves (which originate in the deep troposphere). It is very difficult to model these effects and, therefore, observations are essential to advancing our understanding of atmospheres. The equatorial str…
Semi-annual oscillations in Saturn's low-latitude stratospheric temperatures
Tokunaga, Alan T.; Baines, Kevin H.; Hora, Joseph L. +25 more
Observations of oscillations of temperature and wind in planetary atmospheres provide a means of generalizing models for atmospheric dynamics in a diverse set of planets in the Solar System and elsewhere. An equatorial oscillation similar to one in the Earth's atmosphere has been discovered in Jupiter. Here we report the existence of similar oscil…
The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets
Charnoz, Sébastien; Murray, Carl D.; Beurle, Kevin +3 more
Saturn's narrow F ring exhibits several unusual features that vary on timescales of hours to years. These include transient clumps, a central core surrounded by a multistranded structure and a regular series of longitudinal channels associated with Prometheus, one of the ring's two `shepherding' satellites. Several smaller moonlets and clumps have…
Jovian-like aurorae on Saturn
Bunce, Emma J.; Melin, Henrik; Miller, Steve +5 more
Planetary aurorae are formed by energetic charged particles streaming along the planet's magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere from the surrounding space environment. Earth's main auroral oval is formed through interactions with the solar wind, whereas that at Jupiter is formed through interactions with plasma from the moon Io inside its …
Complex structure within Saturn's infrared aurora
Drossart, Pierre; Dougherty, Michele K.; Bunce, Emma J. +14 more
The majority of planetary aurorae are produced by electrical currents flowing between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere which accelerate energetic charged particles that hit the upper atmosphere. At Saturn, these processes collisionally excite hydrogen, causing ultraviolet emission, and ionize the hydrogen, leading to H3+ …