Hubble Reveals New Moons, Rings Around Uranus
Ben Harder
National Geographic
____________
California-based astronomers have found two previously undiscovered rings and two new moons in orbit around Uranus.
The discovery shows that the celestial neighborhood surrounding the seventh planet is both more populous and more physically volatile than had previously been realized. As the newfound moons and the 16 other known satellites jockey for position around Uranus, "they're pushing and tugging on each other gravitationally in an unpredictable and apparently chaotic manner," said Mark R. Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
The constant buffeting could ultimately erase the new rings and destroy at least some of the moons, Showalter said.
He co-discovered the new entities with Jack J. Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Their study, which relied on images from the Hubble Space Telescope, was published online today in the journal Science.
Dec 22, 2005
Ben Harder
National Geographic
____________
California-based astronomers have found two previously undiscovered rings and two new moons in orbit around Uranus.
The discovery shows that the celestial neighborhood surrounding the seventh planet is both more populous and more physically volatile than had previously been realized. As the newfound moons and the 16 other known satellites jockey for position around Uranus, "they're pushing and tugging on each other gravitationally in an unpredictable and apparently chaotic manner," said Mark R. Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
The constant buffeting could ultimately erase the new rings and destroy at least some of the moons, Showalter said.
He co-discovered the new entities with Jack J. Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Their study, which relied on images from the Hubble Space Telescope, was published online today in the journal Science.
Dec 22, 2005
