Abstract
The determination of the physical thickness of Saturn's rings is crucial for a better understanding of the nature, the dynamics and the evolution of a system of colliding ring particles. Ground-based observations with electronographic cameras and CCD during the transit of the Earth through the ring plane in March 1980, reveal a photometric apparent thickness of 1.4 ± 0.3 km. This value is only an upper limit of the local ring thickness, which is not observable from the Earth or from flybys. The observed brightness includes the contribution of the E ring, of large chunks and condensations and of the warping of the disk. Theory predicts a local thickness of the order of only a few mean particles radii.
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Brahic, A., Sicardy, B. Apparent thickness of Saturn's rings. Nature 289, 447–450 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/289447a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/289447a0
