| タイトル | The Structure of the Uranian Rings and the Search for Rings Around Neptune |
| 著者（英） | Elliot, J. L. |
| 著者所属（英） | Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. |
| 発行日 | 1984-10-01 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | The nine narrow rings of Uranus, presently the only confirmed features of this system, have been observed with the diffraction-limited resolution (3.5 km) of ground-based occultations since their discovery in 1977. These data have been used to establish an orbit model, from which the five Keplerian orbit parameters for each ring, the pole of the mean ring plane, and the gravitational harmonic coefficients J sub 2 and J sub 4 have been determined. The rings are typically a few kilometers wide with eccentricities of about 0.001 and inclinations of a few hundredths of a degree, although a few have no measurable eccentricity or inclination. Interesting Voyager investigations would include probing the structure of the rings at higher spatial resolution, searching for new rings in the system (including inter-ring material), locating the postulated shepherd satellites, and searching for satellites inside the orbit of Miranda that might have dynamical influence on the rings. The high precision (approx 2 km) of the ring orbits might prove useful for spacecraft navigation. For Neptune, occultation searches have revealed no rings to a limit of a few hundreths optical depth, within a few hundred kilometers from the top of the planet's atmosphere (for equatorial rings). |
| NASA分類 | LUNAR AND PLANETARY EXPLORATION |
| レポートNO | 85N11954 |
| 権利 | No Copyright |
| URI | https://repository.exst.jaxa.jp/dspace/handle/a-is/67607 |
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