CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

More Ring Arcs for Saturn

Recent Cassini images reveal for the first time an arc of material co-orbiting with one of Saturn's tiny moons, Anthe, and confirm a previous Cassini detection of a ring arc co-orbiting with another small moon, Methone.

These findings providing further evidence that most of the planet's small, inner moons orbit within partial or complete rings. [Press release here; IAU Circular 8970 here.]

Sep 5, 2008: Anthe and Methone Arcs - Recent Cassini images show arcs of material co-orbiting with the saturnian moons Anthe and Methone.
Sep 5, 2008: The Anthe Arc - Cassini images reveal the existence of a faint arc of material orbiting with the small moon Anthe.
Sep 5, 2008: Anthe's Faint Arc - Cassini images reveal the existence of a faint arc of material orbiting with the small moon Anthe.
Alliance Member Comments
Red_dragon (Sep 20, 2008 at 3:56 AM):
Thanks for the input, Carolyn. It seems in order to see that tiny moons we'll have to wait until a mission is launched to Neptune -that for now seems to be nearly sci-fi -
carolyn (CICLOPS) (Sep 20, 2008 at 3:44 AM):
Red_dragon: The origins of all ring arcs are similar in that to get longitudinal confinement to make an arc requires a particular type of resonance. In the case of Methone and Anthe, it is resonances from Mimas that confine the two moons. The particles in the arcs, which almost certainly come from the moons, are therefore also confined by Mimas. In the case of Neptune's arcs, resonances from Galatea confine them longitudinally and radially. We never saw moons like Methone and Anthe within the Neptune arcs, but then Voyager didn't have the capability to see such tiny moons directly.
Red_dragon (Sep 19, 2008 at 8:21 AM):
Ring arcs just as in Neptune. Perhaps neptunian ones have the same origin of these ones?