How Mimas cleared the Cassini Division
Résumé
Recent measurements of the dissipation of Saturn (Lainey et al. 2016, Icarus, in press) combined with a theoretical study by Fuller et al. (2016, MNRAS) require to revisit the energy dissipation models in planetary systems and the way it affects their satellite system. In addition, the measurements of the large librations of Mimas (Tajeddine et al. 2014, Science) could point to a global ocean underneath the surface of the satellite. These results allowed us to refine the scenarios of the opening of the Cassini Division that we initially presented at the DPS 2012. Assuming a dissipation that is consistent with these latest results, we propose scenarios of combined evolutions of Mimas and the main rings of Saturn, that explain the current size and location of the Division, the excess of density in the outer B ring, a past episode of intense heating of Mimas required to create a global ocean, and its current eccentricity. For that, we show that a past resonance with Tethys increased the eccentricity of Mimas up to 0.2, possibly triggering the melting of Mimas and an episode of inward migration, which created the Cassini Division: the 2:1 resonance between Mimas and the rings pushed the ring material inner to accumulate in the B ring. Once its eccentricity is damped, Mimas resumes its outward migration, leading to a trapping into the current vertical resonance with Tethys. These results are supported by numerical simulations, in which Mimas is driven by the tides, and the rings are simulated with the 1-D hydrodynamical code Hydrorings (Charnoz et al., 2010, Nature). This study has been partially supported by the International Space Sciences Institute in Bern, Switzerland.