HST Observations of the Uranian Ring Plane Crossing: Early Results

Details HST Observations of the Uranian Ring Plane Crossing: Early Results HST Observations of the Uranian Ring Plane Crossing: Early Results

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1012s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #10.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.427

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Between early May and mid-August 2007, Earth was on the north side of the Uranian ring plane while the Sun was still shining on the rings’ southern face. This has provided an exceedingly rare opportunity to view the ring system via transmitted light. The ɛ ring, which typically out-shines every other component of the inner ring-moon system, has been rendered essentially invisible. We have been conducting regular imaging of the Uranian system throughout this period with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera on HST to address numerous scientific goals. (1) To search the inner Uranian system for the "shepherding” moons long believed to confine the narrow rings; (2) to study the packing density of the main rings via direct observations of their vertical thickness; (3) to search for the inner dust rings that appeared in a few Voyager images; (4) to determine the vertical thickness of the faint outer rings μ and ν (5) to obtain the most sensitive determinations of the outer rings’ colors and try to understand why ring ν is red but ring μ is blue; (6) to search for additional outer dust rings under optimal viewing geometry; and (7) to continue monitoring the seemingly chaotic orbital variations of the inner Uranian moons, particularly Mab. HST observations span mid-May to mid-September. We will present our initial results from this observing program.

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