Rings and moons articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    An analysis of the orbital motion of Saturn’s moon Mimas shows that a recently formed global subsurface ocean lies beneath its cratered icy shell and that this ocean is probably still evolving.

    • V. Lainey
    • , N. Rambaux
    •  & K. Baillié

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer mass spectra of ice grains emitted by Enceladus show the presence of sodium phosphates, suggesting that phosphorus is readily available in Enceladus’s ocean in the form of orthophosphates.

    • Frank Postberg
    • , Yasuhito Sekine
    •  & Shuya Tan

  • Article |

    By combining geophysical and geodetic constraints for different models of the internal structure of the Moon, evidence is provided supporting the lunar mantle overturn scenario and the existence of a solid inner core.

    • Arthur Briaud
    • , Clément Ganino
    •  & Nicolas Rambaux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 33 minute change in the orbital period of Dimorphos after the DART kinetic impact suggests that ejecta contributed a substantial amount of momentum to the asteroid compared with the DART spacecraft alone.

    • Cristina A. Thomas
    • , Shantanu P. Naidu
    •  & Harrison F. Agrusa

  • Letter |

    Hubble Space Telescope observations of the seventh inner moon of Neptune, Hippocamp, show that it is smaller than the other six, orbits near Proteus and probably originates from a fragment of Proteus.

    • M. R. Showalter
    • , I. de Pater
    •  & R. S. French

  • Letter |

    The detection of complex organic molecules with masses higher than 200 atomic mass units in ice grains emitted from Enceladus indicates the presence of a thin organic-rich layer on top of the moon’s subsurface ocean.

    • Frank Postberg
    • , Nozair Khawaja
    •  & J. Hunter Waite

  • Letter |

    Interferometric telescope observations of the Jovian moon Io reveal that the floor of the Loki Patera volcano has been resurfaced in two waves, with different starting times and velocities.

    • K. de Kleer
    • , M. Skrutskie
    •  & C. E. Woodward

  • Letter |

    A model of the Moon’s tidal evolution, starting from the fast-spinning, high-obliquity Earth that would be expected after a giant impact, reveals that solar perturbations on the Moon’s orbit naturally produce the current lunar inclination and Earth’s low obliquity.

    • Matija Ćuk
    • , Douglas P. Hamilton
    •  & Sarah T. Stewart

  • Letter |

    Gravitational interactions after the Moon-forming event suggest that the current lunar inclination is the result of collisionless encounters of planetesimals with the early Moon–Earth system.

    • Kaveh Pahlevan
    •  & Alessandro Morbidelli

  • Letter |

    Observations are reported of a permanent, asymmetric dust cloud around the Moon, caused by impacts of high-speed cometary dust particles on eccentric orbits, as opposed to particles of asteroidal origin following near-circular paths striking the Moon at lower speeds.

    • M. Horányi
    • , J. R. Szalay
    •  & Z. Sternovsky

  • Letter |

    Infrared imaging reveals all of Saturn’s faint, outermost ring, showing that it is composed principally of small dust particles and suggesting that particle temperatures are increased because of the radiative inefficiency of the smallest grains.

    • Douglas P. Hamilton
    • , Michael F. Skrutskie
    •  & Frank J. Masci

  • Letter |

    The Moon is thought to have formed mainly from a giant impactor striking the Earth but it has seemed odd that the Earth and its impactor (and hence the Moon) had such similar compositions; here simulations of planetary accretion show that although the different planets have distinct compositions, the composition of each giant impactor is indeed often very similar to that of the planet it strikes.

    • Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti
    • , Hagai B. Perets
    •  & Sean N. Raymond

  • Letter |

    Analysis of silicon-rich, nanometre-sized dust particles near Saturn shows them to consist of silica, which was initially embedded in icy grains emitted from Enceladus’ subsurface waters and released by sputter erosion in Saturn’s E ring; their properties indicate their ongoing formation and transport by high-temperature hydrothermal reactions from the ocean floor and up into the plume of Enceladus.

    • Hsiang-Wen Hsu
    • , Frank Postberg
    •  & Ralf Srama

  • Letter |

    Analysis of the Moon's topography reveals that when its largest basins are removed, the lunar shape is consistent with processes controlled by early Earth tides, and implies a reorientation of the Moon's principal shape axes.

    • Ian Garrick-Bethell
    • , Viranga Perera
    •  & Maria T. Zuber

  • Letter |

    A large number of N-body simulations of the giant-impact phase of planet formation, combined with the measured concentrations of highly siderophile elements in Earth’s mantle, reveal that the Moon must have formed at least 40 million years after the condensation of the first solids of the Solar System.

    • Seth A. Jacobson
    • , Alessandro Morbidelli
    •  & David C. Rubie

  • Letter |

    Observations of a stellar occultation by (10199) Chariklo, a minor body that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune, reveal that it has a ring system, a property previously observed only for the four giant planets of the Solar System.

    • F. Braga-Ribas
    • , B. Sicardy
    •  & D. G. Lambas

  • Letter |

    A strong inverse correlation between gravity and topography leads to the conclusion that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, must have a rigid ice shell with an elastic thickness exceeding 40 kilometres.

    • D. Hemingway
    • , F. Nimmo
    •  & L. Iess

  • Letter |

    The plume at the south pole of Enceladus is several times brighter when that moon is near the apocentre of its eccentric orbit around Saturn than when it is near its orbital pericentre, showing that more material appears to be escaping from beneath Enceladus’ surface at times when models predict its fissures should be under tension.

    • M. M. Hedman
    • , C. M. Gosmeyer
    •  & M. R. Showalter

  • Letter |

    A pattern of features is detected, superposed on Saturn’s low-latitude infrared glow, that implies the transfer of charged species derived from water (ring ‘rain’) from the ring plane to the ionosphere, ultimately leading to the global modulation of upper atmospheric chemistry.

    • J. O’Donoghue
    • , T. S. Stallard
    •  & J. S. D. Blake

  • Letter |

    Observations of trace gases over the south pole of Titan indicate that the moon’s middle-atmospheric circulation extends to an altitude of at least 600 kilometres, which is higher than previously thought and requires active chemistry and dynamics in the upper atmosphere.

    • Nicholas A. Teanby
    • , Patrick G. J. Irwin
    •  & F. Michael Flasar

  • News |

    Mission to Martian moon is the country's first interplanetary attempt since 1996.

    • Eric Hand

  • News & Views |

    The Moon's cratered surface preserves the record of impacts that occurred during the late stages of its accretion. New simulations show that a collision with a companion moon may have formed the lunar farside highlands. See Letter p.69

    • Maria T. Zuber

  • News & Views |

    Simulations show that the still-mysterious origin of Saturn's vast, icy rings could be explained by the 'peeling' by Saturn's tides of the icy mantle of a large satellite migrating towards the planet. See Letter p.943

    • Aurélien Crida
    •  & Sébastien Charnoz

  • Letter |

    Saturn's rings are more than 90–95% water ice, which implies that initially they were almost pure ice because they are continually polluted by rocky meteoroids. Saturn has only one large satellite, Titan, whereas Jupiter has four large satellites; additional large satellites probably existed originally but were lost as they spiralled into Saturn. Now, numerical simulations of the tidal removal of mass from a differentiated, Titan sized satellite as it migrates inward towards Saturn are reported. Planetary tidal forces preferentially strip material from the satellite's outer icy layers, while its rocky core remains intact and is lost to collision with the planet. The result is a pure ice ring.

    • Robin M. Canup

  • Letter |

    These authors report the concentrations of hydrogen, chlorine and sulphur in the mineral apatite from a lunar basalt, and show that the concentrations are indistinguishable from apatites in common terrestrial igneous rocks. They conclude that both metamorphic and igneous models of apatite formation suggest a volatile inventory for at least some lunar materials that is similar to comparable materials within the Earth.

    • Jeremy W. Boyce
    • , Yang Liu
    •  & Lawrence A. Taylor

  • Letter |

    A population of Saturn's small moons orbiting outside the main rings are less than 107 years old, which is inconsistent with the formation timescale for the regular satellites. They may have accreted at the rings' edge, but hitherto it has been impossible to model the accretion process. Here a simulation is reported in which the viscous spreading of Saturn's rings beyond the Roche limit gives rise to the small moons.

    • Sébastien Charnoz
    • , Julien Salmon
    •  & Aurélien Crida

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