Low energy charged particles at Saturn
The Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) experiment measures charged particles with energies greater than about 20 kiloelectron volts and can provide information about the chemical composition of the particles. In addition, the instrument scans through a full 360 deg and is thus the only detector on board Voyager capable of determining actual flow anisotropies of charged particles. An overview of representative particle data from the Saturn encounter is shown in a graph. The LECP instrumentation was able to measure perturbations in the corotational flow of plasma caused by the relative motion of Titan. The composition of the Saturnian magnetosphere is particularly interesting. At energies sampled by the LECP detectors, nearly all the ions are protons. The proton to helium ratio can be as large as 5000:1 and is larger than that seen in any other magnetosphere. The large ratio suggests that plasma within Saturn's magnetosphere does not originate within Saturn's magnetosphere.
- Research Organization:
- Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD
- OSTI ID:
- 5022439
- Journal Information:
- Johns Hopkins APL Technical Journal; (United States), Vol. 2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
CHARGED PARTICLES
SATURN PLANET
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
ELECTRON DENSITY
ENERGY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HELIUM
HYDROGEN
ION DENSITY
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MEASURING METHODS
PROTONS
VOYAGER SPACE PROBES
ATMOSPHERES
BARYONS
DATA
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
HADRONS
INFORMATION
NONMETALS
NUCLEONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANETS
RARE GASES
SPACE VEHICLES
VEHICLES
640107* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena