The confinement of Neptune's ring arcs by the moon Galatea

Fathi Namouni () and Carolyn Porco
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Fathi Namouni: Southwest Research Institute
Carolyn Porco: Southwest Research Institute

Nature, 2002, vol. 417, issue 6884, 45-47

Abstract: Abstract Neptune has five narrow ring arcs, spanning about 40 degrees in longitude, which are apparently confined against the rapid azimuthal and radial spreading that normally results from inter-particle collisions. A gravitational resonance based on the vertical motion of the nearby neptunian moon Galatea was proposed1,2 to explain the trapping of the ring particles into a sequence of arcs. But recent observations3,4 have indicated that the arcs are away from the resonance, leaving their stability again unexplained. Here we report that a resonance based on Galatea's eccentricity is responsible for the angular confinement of the arcs. The mass of the arcs affects the precession of Galatea's eccentric orbit, which will enable a mass estimate from future observations of Galatea's eccentricity.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1038/417045a

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