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Hedman MM, Burns JA, Evans MW, et al. Saturn's curiously corrugated C ring. Science. 2011;332(6030):708-11doi: 10.1126/science.1202238.
Hedman, M. M., Burns, J. A., Evans, M. W., Tiscareno, M. S., & Porco, C. C. (2011). Saturn's curiously corrugated C ring. Science (New York, N.Y.), 332(6030), 708-11. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202238
Hedman, M M, et al. "Saturn's curiously corrugated C ring." Science (New York, N.Y.) vol. 332,6030 (2011): 708-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202238
Hedman MM, Burns JA, Evans MW, Tiscareno MS, Porco CC. Saturn's curiously corrugated C ring. Science. 2011 May 06;332(6030):708-11. doi: 10.1126/science.1202238. Epub 2011 Mar 31. PMID: 21454753.
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Science. 2011 May 06;332(6030):708-11. doi: 10.1126/science.1202238. Epub 2011 Mar 31.

Saturn's curiously corrugated C ring.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

M M Hedman, J A Burns, M W Evans, M S Tiscareno, C C Porco

Affiliations

  1. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 21454753 DOI: 10.1126/science.1202238

Abstract

In August 2009 the Sun illuminated Saturn's rings from almost exactly edge-on, revealing a subtle corrugation that extends across the entire C ring. This corrugation's amplitude is 2 to 20 meters and its wavelength is 30 to 80 kilometers. Radial trends in the corrugation's wavelength indicate that this structure--like a similar corrugation previously identified in the D ring--results from differential nodal regression within a ring that became tilted relative to Saturn's equator plane in 1983. We suggest that this initial tilt arose because interplanetary debris struck the rings. The corrugation's radial extent implies that the impacting material was a dispersed cloud of debris instead of a single object, and the corrugation's amplitude indicates that the debris' total mass was ~10(11) to 10(13) kilograms.

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