论文标题
粒子沉积在土埃塞拉德斯的濒临灭绝的土星卫星上
Particle deposition on the saturnian satellites from ephemeral cryovolcanism on Enceladus
论文作者
论文摘要
地质活性的南极产生了微米大小的颗粒的羽状，这些颗粒可能形成了土星的脆弱电子环，从咪咪的轨道延伸到泰坦。这些颗粒和卫星之间的相互作用已经提出，尽管仅是非常薄的表面现象。我们用新开发的海伦（Helene）数字形状模型仔细检查高分辨率图像，发现Helene的前半球被E形颗粒的厚沉积物覆盖，偶尔会塌陷以形成类似沟壑的凹陷。所得的沟壑的深度和小陨石坑在铅半球上的几乎繁殖表明，沉积物的厚度为数十万米。沉积物的年龄小于我的几十个，这与在远程Sto和Calypso上发现的类似沉积物相吻合。我们的发现以及以前的理论工作共同表明，目前发生在Ecceladus上的冰要发活动是短暂的。
The geologically active south pole of Enceladus generates a plume of micron-sized particles, which likely form Saturn's tenuous E-ring extending from the orbit of Mimas to Titan. Interactions between these particles and satellites have been suggested, though only as very thin surficial phenomena. We scrutinize high-resolution images with a newly developed numerical shape model of Helene and find that the leading hemisphere of Helene is covered by thick deposits of E-ring particles, which occasionally collapse to form gully-like depressions. The depths of the resultant gullies and near-absence of small craters on the leading hemisphere indicate that the deposit is tens to hundreds of meters thick. The ages of the deposits are less than several tens of My, which coincides well with similar deposits found on Telesto and Calypso. Our findings as well as previous theoretical work collectively indicate that the cryovolcanic activity currently occurring on Enceladus is ephemeral.
