| Abstract |
Being the microscopic solid component in the system, dust grains behave differently but interact closely with the neutral gas and the plasma in the magnetosphere. Through processes such as dust charging, plasma sputtering, radiolysis/photolysis reactions, dust grains act as sinks and sources of gas/plasma and, at certain circumstances, could have significant effects on the physical as well as compositional properties of the magnetosphere. At the same time, the dynamics of charged dust particles is influenced by the plasma/electromagnetic environments, which results in a specific dust orbital evolution scenario that agrees with the remote sensing and in situ observations.
In this talk we will review aforementioned processes based on recent Cassini findings to provide an updated overview of the Saturnian system as seen from our dusty point of view. |
