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Science 5 August 1988:
Vol. 241. no. 4866, pp. 690 - 694
DOI: 10.1126/science.241.4866.690

Articles

The Titan -1:0 Nodal Bending Wave in Saturn's Ring C

Paul A. Rosen 1 and Jack J. Lissauer 2

1 Center for Radar Astronomy, Stanford Electronics Laboratories, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4055
2 Astronomy Program, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2100

The most prominent oscillatory feature observed in the Voyager 1 radio occultation of Saturn's rings is identified as a one-armed spiral bending wave excited by Titan's -1:0 nodal inner vertical resonance. Ring partides in a bending wave move in coherently inclined orbits, warping the local mean plane of the rings. The Titan -1:0 wave is the only known bending wave that propagates outward, away from Saturn, and the only spiral wave yet observed in which the wave pattern rotates opposite to the orbital direction of the ring particles. It is also the first bending wave identified in ring C. Modeling the observed feature with existing bending wave theory gives a surface mass density of sim0.4 g/cm2 outside the wave region and a local ring thickness of [unknown]5 meters, and suggests that surface mass density is not constant in the wave region.

Submitted on February 2, 1988
Accepted on June 7, 1988


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Cassini Imaging Science: Initial Results on Saturn's Rings and Small Satellites.
C. C. Porco, E. Baker, J. Barbara, K. Beurle, A. Brahic, J. A. Burns, S. Charnoz, N. Cooper, D. D. Dawson, A. D. Del Genio, et al. (2005)
Science 307, 1226-1236
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)