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Neptune's Ring System

Evidence for incomplete arcs around Neptune first arose in the mid-1980's, when stellar occultation experiments were found to occasionally show an extra "blink" just before or after the planet occulted the star. Images by Voyager 2 in 1989 settled the issue, when the ring system was found to contain several faint rings, the outermost of which, Adams, contains three prominent arcs now named Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The existence of arcs is very difficult to understand because the laws of motion would predict that arcs spread out into a uniform ring over very short timescales. The gravitational effects of Galatea, a moon just inward from the ring, are now believed to confine the arcs. Several other rings were detected by the Voyager cameras. In addition to the narrow Adams Ring 63,000 km from the center of Neptune, the Leverrier Ring is at 53,000 km and the broader, fainter Galle Ring is at 42,000 km. A faint outward extension to the Leverrier Ring has been named Lassell; it is bounded at its outer edge by the Arago Ring at 57,000 km.

Index

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Animations

  • Ring Arc Closeup (QuickTime (MOV) format, 2.1 Mbytes).
      This animation zooms in on one of Neptune's ring arcs. The "rope-like" structure is caused by smear, since the clumps moved significantly while the the camera shutter was open. See the "Twisted Rope" image below. Taken from a NASA full motion video and converted to QuickTime format.
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    Images

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    Related Web Sites

     These sites contain more information about Neptune and its ring system. Back to the index.
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