As Cassini continues its ring-grazing orbits, diving just past the outside of Saturn’s F ring, the outermost discrete ring of the planet, it is tracking several small objects there.
This image of the object F16QA was obtained using Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on Feb. 5, 2017, at a distance of 610,000 miles (982,000 km) from the F ring. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
The latest Cassini images show two such objects that the spacecraft originally detected in 2016.
Cassini mission scientists gave them the informal designations F16QA and F16QB.
They have observed that objects such as these occasionally crash through the F ring’s bright core, producing spectacular collisional structures, similar to those created in 2006 and 2007 by the object designated S/2004 S 6.
While these objects may be mostly loose agglomerations of tiny ring particles, the researchers suspect that small, fairly solid bodies lurk within each object, given that they have survived several collisions with the ring since their discovery.
The faint retinue of dust around them is likely the result of the most recent collision each underwent before these images were obtained.
This image of the object F16QB was obtained using Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on Feb. 5, 2017, at a distance of 556,000 miles (894,000 km) from the F ring. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
The scientists think these objects originally form as loose clumps in the F ring core as a result of perturbations triggered by Saturn’s shepherd moon Prometheus.
If they survive subsequent encounters with Prometheus, their orbits can evolve, eventually leading to core-crossing clumps that produce spectacular features, even though they collide with the ring at low speeds.
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This article is based on a press-release from NASA.
