Numerical modeling of Saturn's satellites and ring system

Saturn's extensive ring and satellite system make it one of the most fascinating bodies in the solar system. Space missions like Cassini have revolutionized our understanding of the Saturn system; however, many issues remain unresolved. This dissertation explores three projects related to unanswered questions about Saturn's rings and satellites.;Published moment of inertia data provide weak constraints on the interior structure of Saturn's mid-sized icy satellites. Giant impact basins and their associated antipodal terrains provide an alternate way to study the satellites' interior structures. I used hydrodynamical impact simulations to assess the amount of damage caused to the antipodal terrain of Tethys, Mimas and Rhea. Results vary somewhat from one satellite to another due to differences in the sizes of the satellites and impactors. I find that antipodal disruption depends more on core radius than core density, suggesting that core geometry may express a surface signature in global impacts on partially differentiated targets.;The flux of meteoroids impacting Saturn's rings is not well known; this has important implications for the age of the rings. One way to better constrain this flux is to observe flashes caused by hypervelocity impacts between meteoroids and ring particles. 400 hours of ultraviolet Cassini observations were initially allotted to search for impact flashes. I used a hydrodynamics code to simulate such impacts and developed a radiative transfer model to study the resulting impact plumes. I find that the impact plumes last for only 10-4 s, and radiation from the impact plumes is emitted in the visible rather than ultraviolet.;The albedos of the ring particles are not well constrained. This directly relates to the composition of the rings and has implications for their age. I developed a radiative transfer code to model photon interactions with ring particles. This code includes the volume filling factor and demonstrates that inclusion of Saturnshine is essential to match the observed brightness of the rings. I find that a modified Barkstrom's law phase function for Saturn and the Callisto phase function for ring particles best fits observed brightness profiles. I also find albedos in agreement with previous results.