Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Phire Hot Start DNA Polymerase

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 22 December 2005
Science 17 February 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5763, pp. 973 - 977
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122882
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research Articles

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

Mark R. Showalter1* and Jack J. Lissauer2

Deep exposures of Uranus taken with the Hubble Space Telescope reveal two small moons and two faint rings. All of them orbit outside of Uranus's previously known (main) ring system but are 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.

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. E-mail: mshowalter{at}seti.org

Read the Full Text


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
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
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 »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

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