Particle Sizes in the Uranian lambda Ring

Details Particle Sizes in the Uranian lambda Ring Particle Sizes in the Uranian lambda Ring

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.1813s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #18.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1126

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

On 10 April 1996, we observed an occultation by Uranus of U138 (SAO 163583; Klemola and Mink, 1991, Astron. J. 102, 389) with the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The occultation observation was spectrally-resolved, viewed simultaneously over the wavelength range 2885 Angstroms to 7721 Angstroms. The high signal-to-noise ratio provides an excellent profile of the Uranian rings, with a distinct detection of the elusive lambda ring during egress. Comparisons between equivalent depths and wavelengths from the U138 occultation data allow us to gain a better understanding of the particle size distribution within the rings. Previous occultation observations have led to the conclusion that the nine classical Uranian rings are composed primarily of cm-sized particles. Conversely, the lambda ring is thought to contain smaller particles, based on evidence from forward-scattered images and previous Voyager occultation observations (French et al., 1991, Uranus, 327). It is known to be azimuthally asymmetric (Showalter, 1995, Science 267, 490); therefore, observations vary considerably and particle size distribution over the ring is unknown. From our U138 data set, we calculate the equivalent depth of the lambda ring and find no clear variation of this parameter with wavelength. As azimuthal asymmetry prevents generalizations over the entire ring, it is possible that there are segments containing particles of different sizes. Our data suggests that the portion of the lambda ring observed during the U138 occultation contains a significant number of micron-sized or larger particles.

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