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Science 30 August 1991:
Vol. 253. no. 5023, pp. 995 - 1001
DOI: 10.1126/science.253.5023.995
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Articles

An Explanation for Neptune's Ring Arcs

CAROLYN C. PORCO 1

1 Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

The Voyager mission revealed a complex system of rings and ring arcs around Neptune and uncovered six new satellites, four of which occupy orbits well inside the ring region. Analysis of Voyager data shows that a radial distortion with an amplitude of approximately 30 kilometers is traveling through the ring arcs, a perturbation attributable to the nearby satellite Galatea. Moreover, the arcs appear to be azimuthally confined by a resonant interaction with the same satellite, yielding a maximum spread in ring particle semimajor axes of 0.6 kilometer and a spread in forced eccentricities large enough to explain the arcs' 15-kilometer radial widths. Additional ring arcs discovered in the course of this study give further support to this model.

Submitted on May 22, 1991
Accepted on July 17, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Source of Saturn's G Ring.
M. M. Hedman, J. A. Burns, M. S. Tiscareno, C. C. Porco, G. H. Jones, E. Roussos, N. Krupp, C. Paranicas, and S. Kempf (2007)
Science 317, 653-656
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cassini Imaging Science: Initial Results on Saturn's Rings and Small Satellites.
C. C. Porco, E. Baker, J. Barbara, K. Beurle, A. Brahic, J. A. Burns, S. Charnoz, N. Cooper, D. D. Dawson, A. D. Del Genio, et al. (2005)
Science 307, 1226-1236
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Neptune's Partial Rings: Action of Galatea on Self-Gravitating Arc Particles.
H. Salo and J. Hänninen (1998)
Science 282, 1102-1104
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Arcs and Clumps in the Uranian lgr Ring.
M. R. Showalter and M. R. Showalter (1995)
Science 267, 490-493
   Abstract »    PDF »


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