Probing the origin of the dark material on Iapetus

Authors: F. Tosi, D. Turrini, A. Coradini, the VIMS Team

(Submitted on 20 Feb 2009)

Abstract: Among the icy satellites of Saturn, Iapetus shows a striking dichotomy between its leading and trailing hemispheres, the former being significantly darker than the latter. Thanks to the VIMS imaging spectrometer onboard Cassini, it is now possible to investigate the spectral features of the satellites in Saturn system within a wider spectral range and with an enhanced accuracy than with the previously available data.

Statistical techniques such as the clustering methods are powerful tools for exploring the spectral data of planetary and satellite surfaces since they allow to identify spectral units between the data of a single celestial body in correlation with the surface geology and to emphasize correlations among the spectra of different bodies.

In this work, we present an application of the \textit{G-mode} method to the VIMS visible and infrared spectra of Phoebe, Iapetus and Hyperion, in order to search for compositional correlations. We also present the results of a dynamical study on the efficiency of Iapetus in capturing putative dust grains travelling inward in Saturn system with the aim of evaluating the viability of Poynting-Robertson drag as the physical mechanism transferring the dark material to the satellite.

The results of spectoscopic classification are used jointly with the ones of the dynamical study to describe a plausible physical scenario for the origin of Iapetus' dichotomy.

Comments: 15 pages, 7 figures

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

Cite as: arXiv:0902.3591v1 [astro-ph.EP]

Submission history

From: Diego Turrini [view email]

[v1] Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:48:12 GMT (1744kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0902.3591