Pollution resistance of Saturn’s ring particles during micrometeoroid impact

Abstract

Saturn’s rings have been estimated to be as young as about 100 to 400 million years old according to the hypothesis that non-icy micrometeoroid bombardment acts to darken the rings over time and the Cassini observation indicated that the ring particles appear to be relatively clean. These young age estimates assume that the rings formed out of pure water ice particles with a high accretion efficiency of impacting non-icy micrometeoroid material (η ≳ 10%). Here we show, using numerical simulations of hypervelocity micrometeoroid impacts on a ring particle, that non-icy material may not be as readily accreted as previously thought. We found that the complete vaporization and expansion of non-icy impactor material on energetic collision with a ring particle leads to the formation of charged nanoparticles and ions that are subsequently removed from the rings through collision with Saturn, gravitational escape or electromagnetic drag into Saturn’s atmosphere. Despite uncertainties in our models that assume no porosity, strength or ring particle granularity, we suggest minimal accretion of non-icy materials would occur following micrometeoroid impact. This pollution resistance mechanism implies a low accretion efficiency (η ≲ 1%). Thus we suggest that the apparent youth of Saturn’s rings could be due to pollution resistance, rather than indicative of young formation age.