What is the distance between peaks in this Cassini image?

[Arctic Fox]

I'm looking at this image:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/cassini/2005-05-10/pia06237-browse.jpg

And was wondering what the distance between the peaks would be, as well as the peaks and low differences.

Anyone in the know about this?

 

[JamesU]

What is that?

 

[LURCH]

That is a gap between two sets of rings around Saturn. In the gap is a small moon long theorized but only recently spotted (by Cassini).

 

[JamesU]

ah-ha!

 

[PeteSF]

Apparently it's the Keeler gap in Saturn's rings, complete with a newly discovered moon (S/2005 S1, or "Wavemaker") that orbits there and seems to make the pretty scallops in the ring edge.

The moon is 7km in diameter, and the image resolution is about 1.5km per pixel. However, I don't know what angle the image was taken from, so you can't conclude too much just from that.

SolarViews.com article

I can't get a reliable source for the size and position of the Keeler gap.
The best I can do is 30-50km wide, and about 250km from the outer edge of the A ring.
If that's so, then there is a bit of an angle to the image, and the resolution in the plane of the ring is maybe 2km per pixel vertically. Horizontally is still unknown, but the moon isn't terribly distorted, so the stated resolution of 1.5km per pixel seems reasonable.

This makes the ring scallops in the order of 100km long, and 10km deep.

Hope this helps!

 

[PeteSF]

long theorized

Almost a year!
Cassini imaged the anomalies in the Keeler gap edges in July '04. The anomalies looked similar to those in the Encke gap caused by Pan, leading to the (obvious?) guess that another moon lived in the Keeler gap.

 

[Chronos]

The gaps between the rings appear to be accreting masses.

 

[Arctic Fox]

This makes the ring scallops in the order of 100km long, and 10km deep.

Hope this helps!

That helps me a lot, thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.