Ejecta clouds from meteoroid impacts on Saturn's rings: Constraints on the orbital elements and size of the projectiles

Debris clouds, providing direct evidence for meteoritic ring erosion, were observed for the first time in Cassini images of Saturn s rings (Tiscareno et al., Science (2013), 340, 460). One feature was observed in two images taken about 24 hours apart, allowing to constrain the time evolution of the cloud. The details of the time evolution suggest that these clouds cannot be due to the primary impact of one solid meteoroid onto the rings, but rather are due to the impact of a compact stream of Saturn-orbiting material derived from ...