Shock Wave Dynamics in Saturn's Rings

Glen R. Stewart
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

Recent observations of Saturn's rings by the Cassini spacecraft show strong wakes excited by the satellite, Pan, which orbits inside the Encke gap. I will present a nonlinear fluid model of the wakes that models ring particle collisions with an effective viscosity. The model describes the nonlinear wake peaks as a shock structure that is similar to the shock wave solution to the Burgers equation. I will also present N-body simulations of satellite wakes in Saturn's rings that display a periodic gravitational instability which is induced by the collisional dynamics in the wake.