[X] My Assistant

[TheAnt]

An analysis of Cassini data from 2005 have shown that static electricity from Hyperion briefly did strike the space probe with static electricity when it passed the moon at a distance of 2000 km.

[nprev]

You're probably right (and welcome back, BTW, oDoug! ) I keep wondering about the fact that Hyperion passes in & out of Titan's hydrogen torus, which is extremely voluminous; could that impart enough of a charge over time to explain the apparently VERY high potential of the moon?

Seems like that thing's gotta have quite a charge no matter how you slice it. Either there's a flux tube-like mechanism going on or it spontaneously reached out & and touched Cassini from a considerable distance indeed. Have there been any comparable events observed during flybys of small objects by Cassini or other spacecraft?

[dvandorn]

...and welcome back, BTW, oDoug!

Thanks, Nick! It's awful darned good to be back. Though, with all that I've gone through in the past year and a half (I'm not going to go into the gory details, it just suffices to say that there was a fair amount of luck involved in me being here today to once again share this marvelous forum with y'all), I think that the "With my shield, not yet upon it" phrase is going to become a permanent part of my sig. I've been through the battles, and I'm back home to tell about it, by the gods!

As for the electrical field structures around Saturn, I will note that the magnetic field obviously develops a strong "static electricity" component as it travels along in its rotation around the planet. Look at what happens in the rings as the magnetic field passes through them -- the electrical effects cause enough particle separation from the ring plane to produce the spokes phenomenon. A larger mass, like an electrically conductive spacecraft, would definitely notice that kind of effect if it passed through that area. So I guess it's not surprising that most of the bodies in the Saturn system are sufficiently charged electrically to cause arcing on Cassini as it passes through.

All of that said, we've passed closer to Enceladus than we passed Hyperion. Heck, I think we'e had closer passes of Titan (albeit above the deep atmosphere) and Rhea, among other moons. Any signs of arcing at those points, I wonder? It might also be good to run through Galileo close approaches, especially with Io, to look for such phenomena.

-the other Doug (With my shield, not yet upon it)