[X] My Assistant

[angel1801]

I have been using the solar system simulator alot on the July 23 Tethys encounter and from what I see, Cassini will be able to image all of the remaining bits of Tethys' south polar region that until has been poorly imaged.

Is this true?

[tasp]

My formal training in the space sciences is sadly lacking. And in the process of going over the ridge system on Iapetus, I have done an excellent job of convincing myself that equatorially emplaced ring systems are not to be expected on satellites this close to Saturn. Perturbations of the proto-ring debris cloud (should we get that far 'round Tethys) by Saturn will bump up the orbital eccentricities of the individual particles and chunks, and I expect them to contact the Tethysian (Tethysusian?) surface prior to their collapse to the Laplacian plane.

--However--

The process might run to an 'intersting' extent prior to the materials all being deposited.


Additionally,

I am wondering if Cassini photos might be computer scanned with the idea being we are looking for small elongated secondary craters that resulted from grazing impactors. We would be looking for long axes that all point back to the parent crater. The areal extent of debris fields associated with specific impacts might be interesting for further study if the fields can be discerned. To study a field formed prior to Tethysian tide lock with Saturn would be interesting, we might be able to derive a rotation period for Tethys (or whatever moon) at the time of the impact.