Detection of Centimeter-Sized Meteoroid Impact Events in Saturn's F Ring
Abstract
Voyager images reveal that three prominent clumps in Saturn's F ring were short-lived, appearing rapidly and then spreading and decaying in brightness over periods of ∼2 weeks. These features arise from hypervelocity impacts by ∼10-centimeter meteoroids into F ring bodies. Future ring observations of these impact events could constrain the centimeter-sized component of the meteoroid population, which is otherwise unmeasurable but plays an important role in the evolution of rings and surfaces in the outer solar system. The F ring's numerous other clumps are much longer lived and appear to be unrelated to impacts.
- Received for publication 20 July 1998.
- Accepted for publication 7 October 1998.
