Hubble discovers new rings and moons around Uranus

Kerala ^ | 12/23/05

[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.

[Past Your Eyes]

The possibilities are endless.

[Dallas59]

Thanks....Uh...the picture? Yeah!

[Larry Lucido]

I thought Web Hubbell was out of prison........

Wasn't gonna post on this thread, but I don't even wanna THINK about the rings and moons that poor Web Hubbell has explored.

[-YYZ-]

"Urectum?"

"I'd say you just about killed 'em." ;)

[SGCOS]

"Give me 20 pens. I'll draw rings around Uranus like you won't believe."

[43north]

Is that Uranus? It is beautiful!


No silly! That's the peak of Brokeback Mountain...

There! Got BM in here too!

[NRA2BFree]

'Lime Away' will take those rings right off Uranus!

[NRA2BFree]

So many threads, so little time to watch Uranus.

[rightinthemiddle]

The new "Brokeback Rings."

[rightinthemiddle]

Sophomoric funny stuff ping

[MNJohnnie]

That's Broken IN back rings

[VadeRetro]

Ring around it ping.

[rightinthemiddle]

I was counting on you for that post.

[PatrickHenry]

Uranus ping list. It's pronounced: OOOOO-ruh-nus, accent on the first syllable, the vowel of which rhymes with "blue."
(I know who belongs on this list; you don't have to tell me.)

[rightinthemiddle]

I'm just your tee-up guy.

[MNJohnnie]

Have they photographed the methane gas cloud around Uranus yet?

[rightinthemiddle]

No, but they tried to send in a probe.

Gotta watch those shepherds.

[rightinthemiddle]

Thanks for the set up.

[PatrickHenry]

I'm wondering if we could come up with an original Uranus joke.

[PatrickHenry]

Google never lets you down: Uranus Jokes.