Abstract
We study numerically the motion of a single particle in the bending wave of finite thickness in Saturn’s ring. We include the forcing due to the planet, a moon, the coriolis force and the self gravity of the ring. In particular, we compute the variation of the velocity arising due to the variation of the amplitude and the phase of the epicyclic motion across the local vertical height of the ring. We suggest that the dissipation of energy due to the collision of ring particles in this shear layer damps out the bending wave of Saturn’s ring at the 5:3 vertical resonance of Mimas within a distance of 150 km from the site of its launching as is observed in Voyager data.
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Chakrabarti, S.K. On the damping of the bending waves in Saturn’s ring. J Astrophys Astron 9, 243–248 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02715070
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02715070