Astrometry of the Inner Uranian Moons, and the Trouble with Mab

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We have carried out astrometric measurements of the inner Uranian moons from essentially all of the available detections obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope during 1994-2008. This is the data set that led to the discoveries of Mab and Cupid and recovery of Perdita. As was first noted by Showalter and Lissauer (Science 311, 973-977, 2006), orbital elements appear to deviate measurably from prior orbital solutions based on Voyager and early HST measurements. These deviations are probably related to mutual perturbations among the satellites, some of which may be in or near resonances (see abstract by Dawson et al., this meeting). Our goal is to quantify the time and distance scales of these deviations, which can potentially place the first dynamical constraints on the masses of the moons involved. Meanwhile, the motion of Mab continues confound. Its orbital variations are substantially larger than those of the other Uranian moons. Fits to the orbits of the other Uranian moons show measurement residuals typically 20-30% of a pixel, which is consistent with the expected precision of our astrometry. Mab's variations are larger than one pixel over time scales as short as one year. In one remarkable pair of image sequences from 2005, observations of Mab taken only six days apart revealed an abrupt 100-km shift in its orbital longitude. We continue to model these variations and to explore a variety of possible mechanisms at work.

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