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New Uranus Moons and Rings Discovered

Posted by Zonk on from the remember-the-children-before-you-post dept.

Patrick Furlong writes "CNN reports that the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered two new moons and two new rings around Uranus. The moons had been imaged by Voyager 2 in 1986 but were not recognized as moons at the time." More from MSNBC, and the official Hubble Site. From the CNN article: "The Hubble images also confirmed the existence of another moon, Perdita, which was first identified in the Voyager 2 pictures but had eluded telescopes ever since. Many moons of Uranus are named after characters in Shakespeare, and these new moons follow suit. Mab is named for Queen Mab, who is the subject of a famous speech by the character Mercutio in 'Romeo and Juliet.'"

8 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Gas giants and rings by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At this point, the question seems to be, do gas giants ever not have rings? They seem to be celestial vacuum cleaners, attracting all sorts of debris. It's a good thing too, as it probably kept the orbital bombardment of Earth to a minimum.

    1. Re:Gas giants and rings by MisterBuggie · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Of the rocky planets, Earth is the only one I know of that has a (natural) ring. It is extremely thin and usually ignored, but does exist. My guess, based on the theory that the moon is a result of a collision between an original Earth and some planet of comparable size, is that the ring is debris that was launched by the collision but did not congeal into the moon as it now is.


      I'm curious, this is the first I've heard of Earth having a ring. The only reference I can find is a hypothesis of a ring having existed in the past. Unless you made an error, could you point me towards some ressources that talk about it?

      Thanks
  2. Hubble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, tell me again why they're getting rid of the Hubble telescope?

  3. TV newscasts just got worth watching by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The last time Uranus was in the news I got quite a kick out of watching TV news anchors squirm as they talked about Your Anus.

    1. Re:TV newscasts just got worth watching by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, they could just pronounce it UrUnus, which is what most astronomy folks do anyways...

      --
      94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
  4. Bah Slashdot Editors by Greyfox · · Score: 2, Interesting
    No sense of what makes a good headline. My submission for this was "Hubble Finds Dark Rings around Uranus" but noooo....

    Oh well anyway, I think it's pretty neat that after having peered into the darkest depths of space, Hubble can still find interesting things to look at here in our own backyard! You'd think the telescope would have demonstrated its merits enough to not have to constantly exist under threat of having its funding cut and it being deorbited...

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  5. Save Hubble then? by 4D6963 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I have the feeling again when reading the article that the accent is on how Hubble can help scientist make discoveries, in order to show that Hubble is more usefull than often thought, and that thus we have to "save" it. Maybe just a feeling tho..

    --
    You just got troll'd!
  6. Perdita has an appropriate name... by bitrex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    given that it had been imaged by Voyager 2 but had eluded telescopses since then. I believe "Perdita" means "Lost" in Latin...