A unique look at Saturn’s ravioli moons | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft https://www.mpg.de/13268755/0327-aero-061986-a-unique-look-at-saturn-s-ravioli-moons
Most of Saturn’s 62 moons orbit their giant planet at a great distance outside the main rings. Only slightly more than a handful of small, irregularly shaped bodies, so-called ring moons, are an exception. In the final months of NASA’s Cassini mission, the space probe was able to take the most accurate look yet at five of these bizarre, partly ravioli-shaped bodies and the space environment to which they are exposed. The results of these measurements are presented an article published this week in the journal Science by a team of researchers including the Max Planck Intitute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany. Shape, density, surface texture, and composition as well as the distribution of charged particles in the environment allow conclusions about the evolution of the ring moons. Monitoring of the moons’ charged particle environment yielded a surprise: a tightly confined accumulation of high energy electrons that forms a previously unknown micro-radiation belt in the region of the planet’s F ring.
With spatial resolutions between 36 and 170 meters per