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Published Online December 22, 2005
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1122882

Research Articles

Submitted on November 21, 2005
Accepted on December 19, 2005

The Second Ring-Moon System of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics

Mark R. Showalter 1* and Jack J. Lissauer 2

1 SETI Institute, 515 North Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
2 Space Science and Astrobiology Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Mark R. Showalter , E-mail: mshowalter{at}seti.org

Deep exposures of Uranus taken with the Hubble Space Telescope reveal two small moons and two faint rings. All orbit outside of Uranus's previously known (main) ring system, but interior to the large, classical moons. The outer new moon, U XXVI Mab, orbits at roughly twice the radius of the main rings and shares its orbit with a dust ring. The second moon, U XXVII Cupid, orbits just interior to the satellite Belinda. A second ring falls between the orbits of Portia and Rosalind, in a region with no known source bodies. Collectively, these constitute a densely packed, rapidly varying, and possibly unstable dynamical system.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Dark Side of the Rings of Uranus.
I. de Pater, H. B. Hammel, M. R. Showalter, and M. A. van Dam (2007)
Science 317, 1888-1890
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New dust belts of Uranus: one ring, two ring, red ring, blue ring..
I. de Pater, H. B. Hammel, S. G. Gibbard, and M. R. Showalter (2006)
Science 312, 92-94
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)