Planetary Rings A Post-Equinox View [Paperback]

Providing the latest results from the Cassini mission, this up-to-date new edition covers all aspects of planetary rings.Providing the latest results and colour images from the Cassini space mission, this up-to-date edition is an important resource for students and professionals in planetary science. Highlights include Saturn's F ring, N-body and stochastic models of ring dynamics, dusty rings, possible exoplanet rings, ring age and evolution.Providing the latest results and colour images from the Cassini space mission, this up-to-date edition is an important resource for students and professionals in planetary science. Highlights include Saturn's F ring, N-body and stochastic models of ring dynamics, dusty rings, possible exoplanet rings, ring age and evolution.Fully updated and expanded, this new edition presents a cutting-edge summary of planetary rings, including results from Cassini's Saturn System, Equinox and Solstice missions, and the New Horizons flyby of Jupiter. The book introduces basic physical processes and simple mathematical approaches in an accessible manner, including N-body and stochastic models of ring dynamics. Further revised chapters present highlighted topics including Saturn's F ring, Uranus' rings and moons, Neptune's partial rings, dusty rings, and Jupiter's ring-moon system after Galileo and New Horizons. Cassini results are fully integrated throughout, including new images in color, and a new Afterword links ring images in the Cassini 'Hall of Fame' gallery to the relevant explanation in the text. An online cache of images and videos from NASA's collection makes it easy to locate relevant and beautiful illustrative materials. This is a key resource for students, researchers and professionals in planetary science, astronomy and space-mission research.Preface: a personal view of planetary rings; 1. Introduction: the allure of the ringed planets; 2. Studies of planetary rings 16102013; 3. Diversity of planetary rings; 4. Individual ring palÃJ