Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.5008s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #50.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The population of the ν and μ rings of Uranus is mostly composed by micrometric particles (de Pater et al, 2006), which can be strongly disturbed by the solar radiation pressure (SRP). Sfair & Giuliatti Winter (2009) showed that the combination of the SRP with the planetary oblateness and the gravitational perturbation of the closest satellites results in a series of close encounters and sometimes collisions with the small nearby satellites. When a collision occurs the probably result is the deposition of particles onto the surface of these satellites. Since this mechanism tends to cause a depletion of material of the rings, we investigate additional sources for these dust particles. Following the method presented in Krivov et al. (2002) and adopting a rough estimative of the flux of interplanetary meteoroids at Uranus' orbit, we calculated the amount of ejecta produced by hypervelocity impacts. If we assume that these collisions are effective in order to create more debris than the mass of the impactor, due to the small cross section of the satellites, the production rate is only about few grams per second. We also investigated if a supplementary amount of material can be generated by collisions of interplanetary projectiles with a population of meter-to-kilometer bodies embedded within the rings, since these bodies may provide an addition of effective cross section area to the impactors. As a preliminary analysis we analyzed a sample of hypothetical satellites located at the peak of the brightness profile of each ring. We restricted ourselves to satellites smaller than the observational threshold of 5 km. Although a sample of moonlets smaller than 5 km can survive at the ν ring without cause any perturbation in the eccentricity larger than 1E-3 of the nearby satellites, those moonlets at the μ ring disturb the orbit of Mab.
Giuliatti Winter Silvia M.
Sfair Rafael
No associations
LandOfFree
Dust Production By Hypothetical Satellites In The Secondary Ring-moon System Of Uranus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Dust Production By Hypothetical Satellites In The Secondary Ring-moon System Of Uranus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Dust Production By Hypothetical Satellites In The Secondary Ring-moon System Of Uranus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1229945