Grand Finale part 1, F ring orbits Options

[nprev]

Astonishing. Looks like a cutaway view of a nut covered in chocolate. Accreted ring material around the equator, I presume.

[Phil Stooke]

Fantastic images... and one little correction. As you say, Ian, north is to the upper right in the first view you posted, so the partially illuminated bulge at lower left is the southern hemisphere. The other views show the northern hemisphere, not the southern. Pan has the same seasons as Saturn, and now the north is more fully illuminated.

Phil

[Habukaz]

Lots of cracks or faults, is it experiencing a lot of stress?

On another note, it looks as if the bulge might not be much less cratered than the main body.

[Gladstoner]

It looks like a miniature version of Saturn.... or a pork tenderloin sandwich.

[moustifouette]

amazing! Rings must be quiet thin (tens of meters) and with a stable vertical position relative to Pan.

[fredk]

Stereo views, 2x zoom from the original, minor alignment and stretch/gamma. Anaglyph:

And cross-eyed:

[Explorer1]

Crisscrossing fractures like Miranda, and visible craters on the ridge (so it's not just puffy dust), and 'sharp' corners to it. What a bizarre place nature has come up with! It looks ridiculous, but I love it!

[Hungry4info]

Could some of these "fractures" be caused by a layer of surface regolith being pushed across a more solid core by the weight of parts of the equatorial bulge? Also, it looks like the bulge is thicker in some places than others -- could this be evidence of a reorientation of the moon in the past? Or are local surface gravity variations a more plausible explanation?

[ngunn]

It looks to me like the ridge is emplaced as a fairly steep-sided feature which suffers occasional slumps. Even in its fresh state it is unlikely to be as narrow at its base as at the rim.

[JohnVV]

slumps ? i do not know

the ridge dose look to be extruded -- think of a "Cream Puff" with the top and bottom smooshed together

but with gravity pulling the "cream" out

[JRehling]

This reminds me of something I've seen in New England, on occasions when it snows very heavily with almost no wind. Snow can pile up on thin solid bodies, like signs, twigs, and power lines, in thin, tall stacks, almost like a playing card standing on its edge. What's remarkable here is how absolutely close to zero the lateral forces must be. That also implies that the primary component of velocity is also quite modest.

It's useful to keep in mind that electric fields may play a role here, too. For most solar system objects, gravity and Newton's laws are the only factors worth considering, but with tiny particles, electric fields can have an important effect. There's some literature on electric fields and Saturn's rings, and these closeups of Pan are likely to stimulate more.

[stevesliva]

It looks to me like the ridge is emplaced as a fairly steep-sided feature which suffers occasional slumps. Even in its fresh state it is unlikely to be as narrow at its base as at the rim.

My bet would be those slopes are pretty much at the angle of repose. (If I recall correctly, these looking like big cliffs is exactly akin to Verona Rupes on Miranda)

Pretty awesome.

[Ian R]

As you say, Ian, north is to the upper right in the first view you posted, so the partially illuminated bulge at lower left is the southern hemisphere. The other views show the northern hemisphere, not the southern. Pan has the same seasons as Saturn, and now the north is more fully illuminated.

Thanks for the correction, Phil — I've gone back and corrected my posts with the correct info.

[PDP8E]

Pan is very fractured and is probably tidally locked to Saturn?
The main body appears to be 'basically' round?
The accretions of the fine 'dust apron' seem to be made from electrostatics and serendipity at Pan's 'equator' relative to the Enke Division?
The first image is the clearest and deconvoluted.


The second is annotated, I propose what it shows is that a 'fractured plate' (in red) slide out of place and caused a bulge in the dust apron at the right and caused dust to slide to create the bulge to the left? (or the asymmetrically fracture was there for quite some time and caused the bulges)


It would be great if we could get an image with the sun angle reversed to see the cracks on the edge of the alleged 'plate slide'.

as always, your mileage may vary.

[jasedm]

Fascinating little moon, and congratulations to the Cassini team for spot-on pointing sequences.

Hopefully the encounter with Atlas early next month will be equally well-targeted (it's a closer flyby) and some direct comparisons can be made.

It's great to get these images of Pan, as it was the last body larger than ~2km in diameter inside of Iapetus' orbit that we didn't previously have good views of.

Great processing of the raws everyone btw.