Recently scienctists with the aid of the hubble telescope have discovered previously unseen rings around Uranus. From what I have ready they seem to be thinking that these are rings that we could not detect before this.
But I got to thinking - is it possible that these rings are recent - like really recent - perhaps in the last 5 years or something, as a result of a recent collision? There was a mention that some of the moons are moving differently than what was last observed
And lets keep the Uranus jokes to a minimum - we have heard them all before.
(emphasis mine)So it appears that it’s entirely possible that they could be new (though I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to their age). And it looks like new stuff’s being discovered all the time. Which isn’t really surprizing, if you think about it, since the cameras on most of the space probes we’ve sent out there are less capable than the video cameras sold by Wallyworld.
Ah, yes, but “youthful and dynamic” on whose timescale? Hawaii is viewed as a new and dynamic volcanic island, being only some 300-400,000 years old.
The idea that Uranus’ rings are new like 5 years old is silly. Settling a debris cloud into a ring would take thousands of years, if not tens of thousands.
Pardon my ignorance, but in reference to timescale, says who? Wouldn’t that be dependant on the 2 objects involoved, and the trajaectories that they had prior to impact?
For example if there were 2 object traveling in clockwise and counterclockwise motion around Uranus, on nearly the same orbit. If they collide, it might be possible for the debris to fill in the ring by populating it in both directions on the same orbit.
Not necessarily; it could easily have formed within hundreds of years. Small fragments will tend to striate quickly and fall into a circular (ring) orbit given that additional moons are there to create orbital resonances. (Essentially, fragments that fall into the resonance pattern will stabilize, and others will be thrown out or fall inward, leaving only the stable ring.) The smaller the objects that form the ring, the faster they’ll form up. But five years is much too little to completely form a new ring system. Check out Worlds Apart: A Textbook in Planetary Sciences and An Introduction to the Solar System for some basic references on planetary science and system formation.
Actually, Voyager 2 passed Uranus in 1986, so changes could be effected in such a span, although not a completely new ring system. But the images from Voyager 2, which was moving quite rapidly at that point, while taken from a closer vantage, are probably not as high a resolution as those taken by Hubble in Low Earth Orbit, given the differences in capability and state of the art of the two instruments. It may be a combination of better observations and changing dynamics of the system. It’s interesting in any case.
This is yet another argument for the continued maintanence of Hubble; despite having outlived her planned lifetime, she still produces good science at a bargin basement price. A half billion dollar repair mission to keep her running another 6-8 years is peanuts for porkchops when it comes to the kind of data she provides and the backlog of astronomy on her roster.