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arXiv · 1207.0155

Saturn's Rings are Fractal

Jun Li·Martin Ostoja-Starzewski
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Abstract

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. We focus on the images sent by the Cassini spacecraft mission: slide #42 "Mapping Clumps in Saturn's Rings" and slide #54 "Scattered Sunshine". Using the box-counting method, we determine the fractal dimension of rings seen here (and in several other images from the same source) to be consistently about 1.6~1.7. This supports many conjectures put forth over several decades that Saturn's rings are indeed fractal.

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Jun Li, Martin Ostoja-Starzewski. 2012-06-30. Saturn's Rings are Fractal. https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0155

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