Related papers: Thermal Emission from the Uranian Ring System
Uranus and Saturn share similarities in terms of their atmospheric composition, which is primarily made up of hydrogen and helium, as well as their ring systems. Uranus has 13 known rings, which are divided into narrow main rings, dusty…
The thermal inertia values of Saturn's main rings (the A, B, and C rings and the Cassini division) are derived by applying our thermal model to azimuthally scanned spectra taken by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). Model…
At the solar equinox in August 2009, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) onboard Cassini showed the lowest Saturn's ring temperatures ever observed. Detailed radiative transfer models show that the observed equinox temperatures of…
Spacecraft and ground-based observations show that the main rings of Saturn lack particles larger than 10 m. Tidal or collisional destruction of satellites/comets have been proposed as the origin of the main rings; however, Saturn's tide…
The zeta ring is the innermost component of the Uranian ring system. It is of scientific interest because its morphology changed significantly between the Voyager 2 encounter in 1986 and subsequent Earth-based observations around 2007. It…
In addition to its suite of narrow dense rings, Uranus is surrounded by an extremely complex system of dusty rings that were most clearly seen by the Voyager spacecraft after it flew past the planet. A new analysis of the highest resolution…
Radio occultations of Saturn's main rings by spacecraft suggest a power law particle size-distribution down to sizes of the order of 1 cm (Marouf et al., 1983), (Zebker et al., 1985). The lack of optical depth variations between ultraviolet…
The $\mu$ and $\nu$ rings of Uranus form a secondary ring-moon system with the satellites Puck, Mab,Portia, and Rosalind. These rings are tenuous and dominated by micrometric particles, which can be strongly disturbed by the solar radiation…
We present results from mid-infrared imaging of Uranus at wavelengths of 13.0 micron and 18.7 micron, sensing emission from the stratosphere and upper troposphere, acquired using the VISIR instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT),…
The sensitivity of ALMA makes it possible to detect thermal mm/submm emission from small/distant Solar System bodies at the sub-mJy level. Measured fluxes are primarily sensitive to the objects' diameters, but deriving precise sizes is…
The subject of this work is the physical characterization of asteroids, focusing on the thermal inertia of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). Thermal inertia governs the Yarkovsky effect, a non-gravitational force which significantly alters the…
Among the growing number of small body rings in the solar system, the ring of Haumea has a special status as it is likely suitable for direct imaging in the visible and submillimeter wavelengths. In this paper, we highlight its sole…
Until now, rings have been detected in the Solar System exclusively around the four giant planets. Here we report the discovery of the first minor-body ring system around the Centaur object (10199) Chariklo, a body with equivalent radius…
The origin of rings around giant planets remains elusive. Saturn's rings are massive and made of 90-95% of water ice. In contrast, the much less massive rings of Uranus and Neptune are dark and likely to have higher rock fraction. Here we…
The recent discovery of dense rings around the Centaur Chariklo (and possibly Chiron) reveals that complete dense planetary rings are not only found around Saturn and Uranus, but also around small bodies orbiting in the vicinity of those…
Context. Recent observations of dust ejections from active asteroids, including (3200) Phaethon, have drawn considerable interest from planetary astronomers studying the generation and removal of small dust particles on asteroids. Aims. In…
By means of a varied-shape thermophysical model (VS-TPM) of Hanus et al. (2015) that takes into account asteroid shape and pole uncertainties, we analyze the thermal IR data acquired by the NASA's WISE satellite of about 300 asteroids with…
We present ALMA and VLA spatial maps of the Uranian atmosphere taken between 2015 and 2018 at wavelengths from 1.3 mm to 10 cm, probing pressures from $\sim$1 to $\sim$50 bar at spatial resolutions from 0.1'' to 0.8''. Radiative transfer…
Saturn's rings are composed of icy grains, most in the mm to m size ranges, undergoing several collisions per orbit. Their collective behaviour generates a remarkable array of structure over many orders of magnitude, much of it not well…
HST/STIS observations of Uranus in 2015 show that the depletion of upper tropospheric methane has been relatively stable and that the polar region has been brightening over time as a result of increased aerosol scattering. This…