New dust belts of Uranus: one ring, two ring, red ring, blue ring.
We compared near-infrared observations of the recently discovered outer rings of Uranus with Hubble Space Telescope results. We find that the inner ring, R/2003 U 2, is red, whereas the outer ring, R/2003 U 1, is very blue. Blue is an unusual color for rings; Saturn's enigmatic E ring is the only other known example. By analogy to the E ring, R/2003 U 1 is probably produced by impacts into the embedded moon Mab, which apparently orbits at a location where nongravitational perturbations favor the survival and spreading of submicron-sized dust. R/2003 U 2 more closely resembles Saturn's G ring, which is red, a typical color for dusty rings.
de Pater
Imke
I
Astronomy Department, 601 Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. imke@astron.berkeley.edu
Hammel
Heidi B
HB
Gibbard
Seran G
SG
Showalter
Mark R
MR
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D007053:Ice; D018540:Uranus
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D007053:Ice