Deflection of Titan’s Wake Related With Asymmetry
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摘要: 旅行者1号和卡两尼飞船都与土卫六近距离相遇过,它们探测到了离子在土卫六尾迹的向土星侧和背土星侧分布不对称.本文将通过一个简单的模型来模拟在上卫六外逸层中产生的离子轨迹.结果说明了重离子有与士卫六半径相当的回旋半径,但是轻离子的回旋半径并没有这么大.由于有限回旋半径效应,向上星侧的大部分重离子被土卫六大气层吸收,所以在土卫六尾迹两边的离子密度是不对称的.这个不对称使尾迹处于不平衡的状态,并偏离共转方向.通过力学平衡,可以发现尾迹偏离共转方向朝土星偏转约19°.这与旅行者1号的观测是一致的.Abstract: Both the Voyager 1 and the Cassini spacecraft had close encounters with Titan, and detected that the ions distribute asymmetrically between the Saturn-facing and the anti-Saturn facing sides of Titan's wake. In this paper the trajectories of ions born in Titan's exosphere are simulated through a simple model. The results show that the heavy ions have gyroradii comparable with Titan's radius but the light ions' gyroradii are not so large. Because of the finite gyroradius effects, most of the heavy ions on the side toward Saturn are absorbed by Titan's atmosphere. Therefore the densities of ions on the two sides of Titan's wake are asymmetrical. This asymmetry makes the wake unbalanced and deviate from the corotation direction. Through the mechanics equilibrium of the wake it is found that the wake will deflect toward Saturn by about 19o from the corotation direction. This is consistent with the observation of the Voyager 1.
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Key words:
- Deflection /
- Titan's wake /
- Asymmetry /
- Corotation direction
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