PDS_VERSION_ID                  = PDS3
RECORD_TYPE                     = STREAM

DATA_SET_ID                     = "HST-S-WFPC2-3-RPX-V1.0"

OBJECT                          = TEXT
  PUBLICATION_DATE              = 1998-07-17
  NOTE                          = "Abstract to HST proposal #5836, as
downloaded from http://presto.stsci.edu/public/propinfo.html in July
1997."
END_OBJECT                      = TEXT
END

    SATURN RING PLANE CROSSING OBSERVATIONS IN AUGUST AND NOVEMBER 1995
                            HST Proposal 5836

Title:                 SATURN RING PLANE CROSSING OBSERVATIONS IN AUGUST
                       AND NOVEMBER 1995
PI:                    NICHOLSON (CORNELL UNIVERSITY)
Category:              SOLAR SYSTEM
Cycle:                 5
Continuation ID:
Status:                completed
                                 Abstract
The plane of Saturn's rings passes through the earth on 10 August 1995,
and through the sun on 17-21 November 1995, providing a rare opportunity
to determine the thickness, vertical distortions, and pole orientation of
the rings. A similar opportunity will not recur until the year 2038. We
will obtain time series of images using the Wide Field Camera and methane
filter at each crossing time, in order to measure the radial profile of
apparent ring thickness, to determine the moment of the earth's crossing
to within a few minutes, and to look for the expected warp in the ring
plane due to satellite perturbations. In addition, the Planetary Camera
will be used to recover the small satellites Pan and Atlas and thus refine
their orbital periods. A series of multi-color WFC observations will be
used to probe the structure and particle size distribution within the
faint E and G rings.