Uranus' Tenth Ring
Image Not Available
Photograph
Uranus' Tenth Ring
January 23, 1986
Gelatin silver print
Image: 24.4 x 15.9 cm
Overall: 25.6 x 20.2 cm
Gift of NASA and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Inscriptions verso (applied label, typed): PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE/ JET PROPULSION LABORATORY/ CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY/ NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION/ PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, 91109. TELEPHONE: (818) 354-5011/ PHOTO CAPTION (TOP) P-29507 B/W/ U-2-26/ 1/15/86/ A newly discovered tenth ring of Uranus is barely visible/ near the top of this two-frame Voyager 2 mosaic. The frames/ composing this picture were obtained Jan. 23, 1986, from a/ distance of 1.12 million kilometers (690,000 miles). The/ tenth ring is about midway between the bright, outermost/ epsilon ring and the next ring down, called delta. The tenth/ ring, the first such feature discovered by Voyager, orbits/ Uranus at a radius of about 50,000 km (30,000 mi). This/ places the ring close to the orbit of the recently discovered/ "shepherd" satellite 1986U7. All nine of the previously/ known rings of Uranus are visible: epsilon, delta, gamma,/ eta, beta, alpha, 4, 5 and 6 (from top). This image has been/ processed to enhance narrow features; the resolution is/ roughly 10 km (6 mi). Both a bright, narrow inner component/ and a fainter, extended outer component of the eta ring are/ distinct in this view. The epsilon ring - which at this/ location achieves its maximum width of 100 km (60 mi) - and/ the broad component of the eta ring are the only features/ resolved here. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by/ the Jet Propulsion Laboratory./ #####
