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Saturns A Ring and Moonlets
A couple of teasers from this morning's Nature Alert. Unfortunately, I don't have access to these articles, but it may prompt those who are interested to do some searching for more info...
Enjoy,
Al.
100-metre-diameter moonlets in Saturn's A ring from observations of 'propeller' structures p648
Four longitudinal double-streaks in an otherwise bland part of Saturn's mid-A ring have been observed. It seems that embedded moonlets approximately 40 to 120 metres in diameter cause these 'propeller'-shaped perturbations to arise.
Matthew S. Tiscareno et al.
Planetary science: Saturn's bared mini-moons p614
Propeller-shaped structures seem to reveal the presence of moonlets, about 100 metres in diameter, embedded in Saturn's rings. This discovery adds to our picture of how the rings formed and are evolving.
Frank Spahn and Jurgen Schmidt
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