The origin of the eccentricities of the rings of Uranus
- Creators
- Goldreich, Peter
- Tremaine, Scott
Abstract
We consider the effect of gravitational perturbations from a nearby satellite on the eccentricity e of a narrow particulate ring. The perturbations near a resonance in an eccentric ring may be divided into corotation and Lindblad terms. For small e, the corotation terms damp e, whereas the Lindblad terms excite e. In the absence of saturation the corotation terms win by. a small margin, and e damps. However, if the perturbations open gaps at the strongest resonances, then the Lindblad terms win, and e grows. This result offers an explanation for the existence of both circular and eccentric rings around Uranus. We also show that eccentricity changes induced by circular rings on eccentric satellite orbits are similar to those induced by satellites with circular orbits on eccentric rings.
Additional Information
© 1981 American Astronomical Society. Received 1980 July 7; accepted 1980 August 13. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grants AST 79-24978 and PHY 79-19884 and NASA grant NGL-05-002-003.Attached Files
Published - 1981ApJ___243_1062G.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 37362
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130306-155257978
- NSF
- AST 79-24978
- NSF
- PHY 79-19884
- NASA
- NGL-05-002-003
- Created
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2013-03-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)