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Origin of Saturn's rings and inner moons by mass removal from a lost Titan-sized satellite

Canup, Robin M.

The origin of Saturn's rings has not been adequately explained. The current rings are more than 90 to 95 per cent water ice, which implies that initially they were almost pure ice because they are continually polluted by rocky meteoroids. In contrast, a half-rock, half-ice mixture (similar to the composition of many of the satellites in the outer …

The recent formation of Saturn's moonlets from viscous spreading of the main rings

Charnoz, Sébastien; Crida, Aurélien; Salmon, Julien

The regular satellites of the giant planets are believed to have finished their accretion concurrent with the planets, about 4.5Gyr ago. A population of Saturn's small moons orbiting just outside the main rings are dynamically young (less than 10⁷yr old), which is inconsistent with the formation timescale for the regular satellites. The…

Solar system: Recipe for making Saturn's rings

Charnoz, Sébastien; Crida, Aurélien

Simulations show that the still-mysterious origin of Saturn's vast, icy rings could be explained by the 'peeling' by Saturn's tides of the icy mantle of a large satellite migrating towards the planet. See Letter p.943

Planetary science: The birth of Saturn's baby moons

Burns, Joseph A.

Simulations show that Saturn's nearby moons, after forming on the outskirts of the planet's main rings, get pushed clear of them. This model reproduces the moons' orbital locations and remarkably low densities.