Another possible piece of evidence for a Rhea ring

One of the more exciting discoveries made by Cassini at Saturn is the possible presence of a ring around one of its moons, Rhea. Evidence for a ring around Rhea comes from the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI); Cassini saw symmetric drops in the flow of electrons around Rhea, and one possible explanation for such a pattern is the presence of big chunks of ice in Rhea's orbit that physically block the free flow of electrons through Saturn's plasma environment. Unfortunately, the particles would be too big to scatter light the way Saturn's dusty rings do, but too small to be individually visible to Cassini's cameras, so there didn't seem to be any way for Cassini to confirm or refute this intriguing idea.

Today at the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting, which takes place all week in Puerto Rico, Paul Schenk presented another indirect piece of evidence for the possible presence of a Rhea ring. He was studying the color properties of Saturn's moons (a subject I'll write more about later) and, as he explains in his blog, he noticed an unusual "narrow set of small ultraviolet-bright spots on Rhea." That is, there was a set of spots that was bright as seen through the ultraviolet filter on Cassini's cameras, compared to their appearance through longer-wavelength filters. Paul continues: "Normally this is not a cause for excitement, as fresh crater rims have this signature, but these were lined up along a great circle trace very close to Rhea's equator. This alignment is not a random coincidence. No other satellite has comparable features."

Intriguing indeed! More on Paul's color maps shortly...