The Composition of Saturn's Rings (original) (raw)

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The Composition of Saturn's Rings

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Abstract

A composite spectrum between 0.30 and 4.05 μm of Saturn's rings is analyzed using the Shkuratov scattering theory (Shkuratov et al. 1999, Icarus137, 235–246). Several types of surface and composition are discussed. We demonstrate that both the strong reddening over the interval 0.3–0.7 μm and the water ice absorption features are well reproduced by an intimate (“salt-and-pepper”) mixture of four coarse particles of two different materials: 93% are grains (typical sizes of 10, 200, and 2000 μm) of water ice containing a few percent of refractory organic solid (tholin) impurities within their bulk, and 7% are coarse grains of a dark material (amorphous carbon). The cosmogenic implications of the inferred composition are discussed.

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Citation Excerpt :
In the planetary rings literature, attention to the effects of shadowing on particle albedo has been mixed. Shadowing was untreated in spherical albedo modeling by Doyle et al. (1989), Cuzzi and Estrada (1998), Bradley et al. (2013; 2010), Elliott and Esposito (2011), and Poulet and Cuzzi (2002). Poulet et al. (2003) worked with the near-zero phase angle reflectivity of a ring particle, after removing optical depth and geometry effects, and also neglected roughness treatments; they needed to add some 5–10% carbon to the ring material to match the overall albedo. View all citing articles on Scopus

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