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Originally published in Science Express on 23 August 2007
Science 28 September 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5846, pp. 1888 - 1890
DOI: 10.1126/science.1148103
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Reports

The Dark Side of the Rings of Uranus

Imke de Pater,1* H. B. Hammel,2 Mark R. Showalter,3 Marcos A. van Dam4

The rings of Uranus are oriented edge-on to Earth in 2007 for the first time since their 1977 discovery. This event provides a rare opportunity to observe their dark (unlit) side, where dense rings darken to near invisibility, but faint rings become much brighter. We present a ground-based infrared image of the unlit side of the rings that shows that the system has changed dramatically since previous views. A broad cloud of faint material permeates the system but is not correlated with the well-known narrow rings or with the embedded dust belts imaged by the Voyager spacecraft. Although some differences can be explained by the unusual viewing angle, we conclude that the dust distribution within the system has changed substantially since the 1986 Voyager encounter and that it occurs on much larger scales than has been seen in other planetary systems.

1 Astronomy Department, 601 Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
2 Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
3 SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, 515 North Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
4 W. M. Keck Observatory, 65-1120 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: imke{at}astron.berkeley.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Clump Detections and Limits on Moons in Jupiter's Ring System.
M. R. Showalter, A. F. Cheng, H. A. Weaver, S. A. Stern, J. R. Spencer, H. B. Throop, E. M. Birath, D. Rose, and J. M. Moore (2007)
Science 318, 232-234
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)