The Moons, Rings and Arcs of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics

Details The Moons, Rings and Arcs of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics The Moons, Rings and Arcs of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics

Jul 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004hst..prop10275s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #10275

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #10275 Solar System

Scientific paper

Last year, our Uranian ring and moon observing program {GO-9823} resulted in the discovery of two moons, S/2003 U 1 and S/2003 U 2. We imaged two additional small moons, Ophelia and S/1986 U 10, that had not been seen since the Voyager encounter of 1986. Furthermore, our data show faint arcs and clumps orbiting within the rings, which were not seen by Voyager and are completely unexpected. We employed several "tricks" of the HRC to achieve this remarkable senstivity; specifically, we used the CLEAR filter and oriented the images so that the planet, though vastly overexposed, did not interfere with the ring/moon region of interest to us. This allowed us to detect 25th-magnitude moons circling a 5th-magnitude planet. Now we propose to complete the task by carrying out a comprehensive survey of the system using the same techniques. Our goals are to recover the moons, better discern their orbital elements, and learn more about the dynamics of the ring clumps. In particular, we need to {1} understand the long-term stability of S/2003 U 2, which orbits perilously close to the larger moon Belinda; {2} complete our search for moons, which was only 50% complete last year, and {3} better understand how the clumps and arcs within the ring system might relate to nearby "shepherding" moons, seen or unseen.

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