Peculiar rainbows in Saturn's E ring: Uncovering luminous bands near Enceladus
Niels Rubbrecht, St\'ephanie Cazaux, Beno\^it Seignovert, Matthew Kenworthy, Nicholas Kutsop, St\'ephane Le Mou\'elic, J\'er\^ome Loicq

TL;DR
This study identifies luminous, stripe-like diffraction patterns in Saturn's E ring caused by periodic ice particle structures, revealing new insights into ring composition and Enceladus' plume activity.
Contribution
It uncovers a novel diffraction-based phenomenon in Saturn's E ring linked to periodic ice structures, advancing understanding of ring particle arrangements.
Findings
Stripe-like diffraction patterns observed in E ring.
Periodic structure likely composed of fresh ice particles.
Patterns linked to Enceladus' plume activity.
Abstract
We report observations of stripe-like features in Enceladus' plumes captured simultaneously by Cassini's VIMS-IR and ISS NAC instruments during flyby E17, with similar patterns seen in VIMS-IR data from flyby E13 and E19. These parallel stripes, inclined at approximately 16 to the ecliptic and 43 to Saturn's ring plane, appear continuous across images when projected in the J2000 frame. A bright stripe, most visible at wavelengths around 5 m, acts as the zeroth-order diffraction peak of a reflection grating with an estimated groove spacing of 0.122.60 mm, while adjacent stripes are attributed to higher-order diffraction peaks. We suggest that this light-dispersing phenomenon originates from an inclined periodic structure within Saturn's E ring. This structure, constrained between Saturn's G ring and Rhea's orbit, likely consists of fresh ice particles supplied…
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