2015/04/01 by Jun Li, Martin Ostoja‐Starzewski · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Astro and Planetary Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s40064-015-0926-6
openalex publication_date 2015/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19
The images recently sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission (on the NASA website http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/) show the complex and beautiful rings of Saturn. Over the past few decades, various conjectures were advanced that Saturn's rings are Cantor-like sets, although no convincing fractal analysis of actual images has ever appeared. Here we focus on four images sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission (slide #42 "Mapping Clumps in Saturn's Rings", slide #54 "Scattered Sunshine", slide #66 taken two weeks before the planet's Augus't 200'9 equinox, and slide #68 showing edge waves raised by Daphnis on the Keeler Gap) and one image from the Voyager 2' mission in 1981. Using three box-counting methods, we determine the fractal dimension of edges of rings seen here to be consistently about 1.63 ~ 1.78. This clarifies in what sense Saturn's rings are fractal.