Abstract
The images recently sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission (on the NASA website http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/) show the complex and beautiful rings of Saturn. Over the past few decades, various conjectures were advanced that Saturn’s rings are Cantor-like sets, although no convincing fractal analysis of actual images has ever appeared. Here we focus on four images sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission (slide #42 “Mapping Clumps in Saturn’s Rings”, slide #54 “Scattered Sunshine”, slide #66 taken two weeks before the planet’s Augus’t 200’9 equinox, and slide #68 showing edge waves raised by Daphnis on the Keeler Gap) and one image from the Voyager 2’ mission in 1981. Using three box-counting methods, we determine the fractal dimension of edges of rings seen here to be consistently about 1.63 ~ 1.78. This clarifies in what sense Saturn’s rings are fractal.
Highlights
The images recently sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission show the complex and beautiful rings of Saturn
#68 showing edge waves raised by Daphnis on the Keeler Gap) and one image from the Voyager 2’ mission in 1981
Using three box-counting methods, we determine the fractal dimension of edges of rings seen here to be consistently about 1.63 ~ 1.78
Summary
The images recently sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission August 2009 equinox, and in Figure 1 (d) slide #68 showing edge waves raised by Daphnis on the Keeler. Between the B and the A rings, appears at the top of the image, showing ringlets in the inner division, while in the fourth Daphnis cruises through. Full list of author information is available at the end of the article the Keeler Gap, raising edge waves in the ring material as it passes. The selected set of images represent Saturn’s rings from a variety of view angles and regions
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