Keck Adaptive Optics Images of Uranus and Its Rings

Details Keck Adaptive Optics Images of Uranus and Its Rings Keck Adaptive Optics Images of Uranus and Its Rings

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002icar..160..359d&link_type=abstract

Icarus, Volume 160, Issue 2, p. 359-374.

Physics

17

Scientific paper

We present adaptive optic images of Uranus obtained with the 10-m W. M. Keck II telescope in June 2000, at wavelengths between 1 and 2.4 μm. The angular resolution of the images is ~0.06-0.09''. We identified eight small cloud features on Uranus's disk, four of which were in the northern hemisphere. The latter features are ~1000-2000 km in extent and located in the upper troposphere, above the methane cloud, at pressures between 0.5 and 1 bar. Our data have been combined with HST data by Hammel et al. (2001, Icarus153, 229-235) the combination of Keck and HST data allowed derivation of an accurate wind velocity profile. Our images further show Uranus's entire ring system: the asymmetric ɛ ring, as well as the three groups of inner rings (outward from Uranus): the rings 6+5+4, α+β, and the η+γ+δ rings. We derived the equivalent I/F width and ring particle reflectivity for each group of rings. Typical particle albedos are ~0.04-0.05, in good agreement with HST data at 0.9 μm.

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