In situ collection of dust grains falling from Saturn’s rings into its atmosphere

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aat3185
• Publication Date: 2018-10-04T18:08:22Z
• Authors: Hsiang-Wen Hsu; Jürgen Schmidt; Sascha Kempf; Frank Postberg; Georg Moragas-Klo...; Martin Seiß; Holger Hoffmann; Marcia Burton; ShengYi Ye; William S. Kurth; Mihály Horányi; Nozair Khawaja; Frank Spahn; Daniel Schirdewahn; James O’Donoghue; Luke Moore; Jeff Cuzzi; Geraint H. Jones; Ralf Srama
• Keywords: Magnetosphere of Saturn

Cassini's final phase of exploration The Cassini spacecraft spent 13 years orbiting Saturn; as it ran low on fuel, the trajectory was changed to sample regions had not yet visited. A series orbits close rings followed by a Grand Finale orbit, which took through gap between Saturn and its before destroyed when entered planet's upper atmosphere. Six papers in this issue report results from these phases mission. Dougherty et al. measured magnetic field Saturn, implies complex multilayer dynamo process inside planet. Roussos detected an additional radiation belt trapped within rings, sustained radioactive decay free neutrons. Lamy present plasma measurements taken flew emitting kilometric radiation, connected aurorae. Hsu determined composition large, solid dust particles falling into planet, whereas Mitchell investigated smaller nanograins show how they interact with Finally, Waite identified molecules infalling material directly Saturn's Science , p. eaat5434 eaat1962 eaat2027 eaat3185 eaat2236 eaat2382