Title:

Early evolution of Saturn's small icy moons

Authors:

Sebastien CHARNOZ (1), Valery LAINEY(2)

Abstract:

Saturn small icy moons have irregular shapes, orbit under the strong tidal field of Saturn's rings, and share common spectral properties with the main rings. It has been recently shown that these moons could have formed recently (< 100 My) via the viscous spreading of Saturn's main rings and that they may regularly feed the F ring with fresh material. In some sense the main rings may be the "parents" of the small moons, that are, in turn, are the "parents" of some of the diffuse rings. We will show that the outcomes of this formation process are strongly dependant on the initial mass of the ring system as well as on the tidal dissipation rate of Saturn. Using a hybrid simulation coupling ring's evolution, satellite evolution and Saturn's dissipation, we will explore these parameters to narrow the range of possible initial conditions. We will try to reconstruct the possible early orbital and collisional evolution of this population. Applications to other planets will be also discussed.