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Carbon Chain Anions and the Growth of Complex Organic Molecules in Titan’s Ionosphere
Lewis, G. R.; Coates, A. J.; Kataria, D. O. +13 more
Cassini discovered a plethora of neutral and ionized molecules in Titan’s ionosphere including, surprisingly, anions and negatively charged molecules extending up to 13,800 u q-1. In this Letter, we forward model the Cassini electron spectrometer response function to this unexpected ionospheric component to achieve an increased mass res…
Corotating Magnetic Reconnection Site in Saturn’s Magnetosphere
Lewis, G. R.; Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K. +12 more
Using measurements from the Cassini spacecraft in Saturn’s magnetosphere, we propose a 3D physical picture of a corotating reconnection site, which can only be driven by an internally generated source. Our results demonstrate that the corotating magnetic reconnection can drive an expansion of the current sheet in Saturn’s magnetosphere and, conseq…
Nanograin Density Outside Saturn’s A Ring
Persoon, A. M.; Johnson, Robert E.; Tseng, Wei-Ling +1 more
The observed disparity between the radial dependence of the ion and electron densities measured by the Cassini plasma (CAPS) and radio (RPWS) science instruments are used to show that the region between the outer edge of Saturn’s main rings and its tenuous G ring is permeated with small charged grains (nanograins). These grains emanate from the ed…
Photoionization Modeling of Titan’s Dayside Ionosphere
Wahlund, J. -E.; Edberg, N. J. T.; Vigren, E. +4 more
Previous modeling studies of Titan’s dayside ionosphere predict electron number densities that are roughly a factor of 2 higher than those observed by the RPWS/Langmuir probe. The issue can equivalently be described as the ratio between the calculated electron production rates and the square of the observed electron number densities resulting in r…
A Librational Model for the Propeller Blériot in the Saturnian Ring System
Seiß, M.; Spahn, F.; Hoffmann, H. +2 more
The reconstruction of the orbital evolution of the propeller structure Blériot orbiting in Saturn’s A ring from recurrent observations in Cassini ISS images yielded a considerable offset motion from the expected Keplerian orbit. This offset motion can be composed by three sinusoidal harmonics with amplitudes and periods of 1845, 152, 58 km and 11.…