Dynamics of the Dust Grains in the Saturn's Rings

Saturn's magnetosphere contains numerous sources of neutral gas. The neutral gas can become ionized and contribute to the thermal plasma and radiation belt particle populations. In particular, sputtering by charged particle and meteoroid bombardment of material from the rings and the surfaces of Saturn's icy moons is believed to create an extensive neutral cloud of water molecules and water dissociation products in the inner magnetosphere that seeds it with water product ions.