12.5 Planetary rings  (Page 6/21)

One of the most interesting rings of Saturn is the narrow F Ring , which contains several apparent ringlets within its 90-kilometer width. In places, the F Ring breaks up into two or three parallel strands that sometimes show bends or kinks. Most of the rings of Uranus and Neptune are also narrow ribbons like the F Ring of Saturn. Clearly, the gravity of some objects must be keeping the particles in these thin rings from spreading out.

As we have seen, the largest features in the rings of Saturn are produced by gravitational resonances with the inner moons, while much of the fine structure is caused by smaller embedded moons. In the case of Saturn’s F Ring, close-up images revealed that it is bounded by the orbits of two moons, called Pandora and Prometheus ( [link] ). These two small moons (each about 100 kilometers in diameter) are referred to as shepherd moons , since their gravitation serves to “shepherd” the ring particles and keep them confined to a narrow ribbon. A similar situation applies to the Epsilon Ring of Uranus , which is shepherded by the moons Cordelia and Ophelia. These two shepherds, each about 50 kilometers in diameter, orbit about 2000 kilometers inside and outside the ring.

Saturn’s f ring and its shepherd moons.

Theoretical calculations suggest that the other narrow rings in the uranian and neptunian systems should also be controlled by shepherd moons, but none has been located. The calculated diameter for such shepherds (about 10 kilometers) was just at the limit of detectability for the Voyager cameras, so it is impossible to say whether they are present or not. (Given all the narrow rings we see, some scientists still hope to find another more satisfactory mechanism for keeping them confined.)

One of the outstanding problems with understanding the rings is determining their ages. Have the giant planets always had the ring systems we see today, or might these be a recent or transient addition to the solar system? In the case of the main rings of Saturn, their mass is about the same as that of the inner moon Mimas. Thus, they could have been formed by the break-up of a Mimas-sized moon, perhaps very early in solar system history, when there were many interplanetary projectiles left over from planet formation. It is harder to understand how such a catastrophic event could have taken place recently, when the solar system had become a more stable place.