Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5713, pp. 1274 - 1276
DOI: 10.1126/science.1106218
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Composition of Saturnian Stream Particles

Sascha Kempf,1* Ralf Srama,1 Frank Postberg,1 Marcia Burton,2 Simon F. Green,3 Stefan Helfert,1 Jon K. Hillier,3 Neil McBride,3 J. Anthony M. McDonnell,3 Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer,1 Mou Roy,2 Eberhard Grün1,4

During Cassini's approach to Saturn, the Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA) discovered streams of tiny (less than 20 nanometers) high-velocity (~100 kilometers per second) dust particles escaping from the saturnian system. A fraction of these impactors originated from the outskirts of Saturn's dense A ring. The CDA time-of-flight mass spectrometer recorded 584 mass spectra from the stream particles. The particles consist predominantly of oxygen, silicon, and iron, with some evidence of water ice, ammonium, and perhaps carbon. The stream particles primarily consist of silicate materials, and this implies that the particles are impurities from the icy ring material rather than the ice particles themselves.

1 Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
3 Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
4 Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, 1680 East West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Sascha.Kempf{at}mpi-hd.mpg.de

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)