Observations of ejecta clouds produced by impacts onto Saturn's rings.

During Saturn's equinox in 2009, when the Sun illuminated its rings edge-on, images taken by the Cassini spacecraft showed dust clouds appearing as bright streaks above the rings. Similar streaks were detected in 2005 and 2012 when Cassini observed the C ring at close range. Tiscareno et al. (p. [460][1]) suggest that the cause of each observed feature is likely to be the impact of a stream of recently disrupted material originating from a meteoroid impact onto the ring and derive the influx rate of meteoroids at Saturn. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1233524