Posted on 12/29/2005 11:26:39 AM PST by iPod Shuffle
Hubble discovers new rings and moons around Uranus
Washington: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new pair of rings around Uranus and two new small satellites orbiting the planet.
The rings are very far away from the planet and the largest of them is twice the diameter of the planet's previously known rings. Astronomers are now calling them Uranus' second ring system. Also one of the new moons shares its orbit with one of the rings. The findings are to be published in the journal Science.
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, program scientist for Hubble at NASA Headquarters said that analysis of the Hubble data had shown that the orbits of Uranus' family of inner moons had changed significantly over the past decade, and would now enable them to better understand how planetary systems were formed and sustained.
“The detection of these new interacting rings and moons will help us better understand how planetary systems are formed and sustained, which is of key importance to NASA's scientific exploration goals,” he said.
“The new discoveries demonstrate that Uranus has a youthful and dynamic system of rings and moons,” added Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, Baltimore.
Researchers are now saying that since dust orbiting Uranus is expected to be depleted by spiraling away, the planet's rings must be continually replenished with fresh material, adding that the outermost ring is replenished by a 12-mile-wide newly discovered moon, named Mab, which was first observed in 2003.
They said that meteoroid impacts continually blast dust off the surface of Mab. This dust then spreads out into a ring around Uranus. Mab's ring receives a fresh infusion of dust from each impact.
Researchers now believe that the discovery of the second ring, which orbits closer to the planet than the outer ring, has provided further evidence that collisions affect the evolution of the system. This second ring has no visible body to re-supply it with dust. The ring may be a telltale sign of an unseen belt of bodies a few feet to a few miles in size, they said, adding that a previous impact to one of Uranus' moons could have produced the observed debris ring.
Try wiping better.
How many threads of the "rings around Uranus" are we going to have to endure?
You have to be impressed with a smartass so selective that he passes up the "Uranus" jokes for a Web Hubbell one . . .
That or you are like me and just so darn political that you don't see the obvious one-liners anymore! lol
I've heard of ring around the collar, but this?
I think outside the box........but inside the outhouse........
Please, no pics.
These science threads just get so intellectual...
Fry: "What's it called now?"
Farnsworth: "Urectum."
Only 614 more years to go....
Super!
.......[8^p......
Is that Uranus? It is beautiful!
Better Uranus than Myanus.
With a title including the words "rings", "moons" and "Uranus", they almost write themselves, don't they? LOL
New rings around your anus! And, able to moon us too!
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