Are Uranus' rings black because they are in the solar wind?

Details Are Uranus' rings black because they are in the solar wind? Are Uranus' rings black because they are in the solar wind?

Dec 1985

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1985georl..12..855c&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 12, Dec. 1985, p. 855-858.

Physics

10

Albedo, Planetary Atmospheres, Planetary Ionospheres, Planetary Magnetic Fields, Solar Wind, Uranus Rings, Mach Number, Natural Satellites, Uranus, Rings, Color, Ionosphere, Parameters, Magnetic Fields, Albedo, Satellites, Radiation, Comparisons, Surface, Ice, Composition, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

The authors show that, for a reasonable range of choices of ionospheric parameters for Uranus and of solar wind parameters at Uranus orbit, the rings of Uranus are for the most part immersed in the solar wind if Uranus lacks an intrinsic magnetic field. In addition, from an examination of the geometric albedos of Jupiter's and of Saturn's rings and moons, the authors show that these bodies have characteristically either high albedos in a low radiation environment or low albedos in a high radiation environment. The authors suggest that the moons of Uranus possess a significantly lower albedo than those in the low radiation environment of Saturn and that the rings of Uranus are black because the rings and moons of Uranus may be relatively depleted in their surface stores of ices. In this scenario, immersion of the rings of Uranus in the solar wind would provide a loss mechanism for ring ices and produce the black rings observed. The black rings of Uranus may thus imply the lack of an intrinsic Uranus magnetic field.

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