Maps of the rings of Uranus at a wavelength of 2.2 microns
- Creators
- Matthews, K.
- Neugebauer, G.
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Nicholson, P. D.
Abstract
Maps of the ring system of Uranus, as seen in reflected sunlight at a wavelength of 2.2 μm, are presented for May 1978 and July 1979. Large azimuthal brightness variations revealed by these maps are consistent with the variable width established for the ϵ ring from occultation studies and support the existing elliptical model for this ring. An upper limit of ∼0.010 is placed on the normal optical depth of any broad (∼5000 km wide) axisymmetric ring component. There exists, however, an unexplained east-west asymmetry in the May 1978 map. In addition, multiaperture broadband infrared photometry of Uranus is reported, from which the geometric albedo of the planet at wavelengths of 1.25, 1.65, and 2.2 μm and the geometric albedo of the rings at 2.2 μm are derived.
Additional Information
© 1982 Elsevier. Received February 25, 1982: revised June 9, 1982. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of B. T. Soifer and the mountain staff of Palomar Observatory in making the observations reported here, and the encouragement and support offered by Peter Goldreich during the reduction of the data. Carolyn Porco and Edward Danielson kindly assisted in creating the images in Fig. 3. This work was supported, in part, by NASA and NSF grants.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 75260
- DOI
- 10.1016/0019-1035(82)90173-7
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170320-161234774
- NASA
- NSF
- Created
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2017-03-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field