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

Science Mag ^ | 2/17

[iPod Shuffle]

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.

[Kimmers]

Ok, I am checking later for comments on this post....

[Bigh4u2]

"Deep exposures of Uranus taken with the Hubble Space Telescope"

I stopped right there!

LOL!

:0)

[Billthedrill]

Could we dispense with the "ring around Uranus" jokes for once?

No?

OK then. Carry on.

[Armigerous]

.....yea,that joke has been done to death

[Bigh4u2]

Sorry if somewhere along the line you lost your sense of humor, but I haven't! ;)

[Armigerous]

I haven't lsot my sense of humor at all.....but as P.T.Barnum famously said,"Doing something funny 100 times doesn't make it 100 times as funny as doing it once."

[Lekker 1]

Why else would someone post an astronomy article on a conservative political forum, but to inject some comic relief? I say, the anus jokes are free game!

[meanie monster]

I beat the PING, yay!




















no ya don't!!!

[Petronski]

I just wanted to see how long it would take for jokes about Uranus to show up.

Not long!

[hershey]

Amazing, and now they think there's a tenth planet. My head hurts.

[inquest]

Collectively, these constitute a densely packed, rapidly varying, and possibly unstable dynamical system.

So they're saying it might let one loose?

[dfwgator]

Did they spot any Klingons?

[dfwgator]

You can never joke too much about Uranus.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Thus making the Hubble the largest colonoscopy machine ever built!

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Ah, Hubble-the colonoscopy of the Universe!

[clyde asbury]

You can never joke too much about Uranus.

Nobody gets tired of a really good joke. Repeat it often! :)

[operation clinton cleanup]

Collectively, these constitute a densely packed, rapidly varying, and possibly unstable dynamical system.

Hehe! They said "densely packed"...

[BlueDragon]

Not exactly like the 'ol "ring around the collar"...

"those dirty rings!"

[VadeRetro]

Two more rings around Uranus.