On the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt dust flux to Saturn

Abstract

Dust grains originating from the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (EKB) are believed to be the dominant species of dust in the outer solar system. These grains, evolving inward from the EKB under the influence of a variety of forces, will encounter the giant planets or their ring and moon systems. At Saturn, this influx drives several physical processes including the generation of tenuous dusty exospheres and rings, the spatial and compositional evolution of Saturn's main planetary ring system, and the generation of ionospheric and neutral gas layers in the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan. Recent comparisons between in-situ dust density measurements in the outer solar system and a dynamical dust grain tracing model have placed experimental limits on the mass production rate and power-law exponent of EKB-generated grains. Using this model and the experimental constraints, we make predictions for the influx of micron-sized, EKB-generated grains into the saturnian system, where the Cosmic Dust Analyzer onboard the Cassini mission is currently making measurements of both endogenous and exogenous dust populations. © 2012. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.