T-75 Flyby (April 19, 2011 / Rev 147), All about the magnetosphere Options

[Juramike]

Mission description now up (new abbreviated format?): http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/files/T-75_508_v41.pdf

A more complete description of images (RGB composite + some near looks at Adiri - did the recent storm wash away any surface coatings?) on the CICLOPS Looking Ahead summary: http://www.ciclops.org/view/6763/Rev147

[nprev]

Mike, I beg your indulgence; been awhile since we've seen you exercise your PhD! Can you speculate on the chemical nature of the surface coatings that might have been washed away based (I assume) largely on their solubility in liquid methane @ 94K?

Of course, all bets are off if this was truly a methane monsoon; sheer mechanical force presumably would have been enough to scrub pretty much any transient surface deposits. But what if this was the equivalent of, say, a few cm of gentle terrestrial rain without wind? I suspect that we may have seen removal of 17 or so years of fallout products from atmospheric chemosynthesis.