Abstract
DERMOTT and Gold1 have proposed a resonance model for the rings of Uranus. They assume the rings are, in fact, arcs composed of small particles librating about stable resonances determined by pairs of satellites, either Ariel and Titania or Ariel and Oberon. Dermott and Gold dismiss as insignificant resonances involving tiny Miranda. We report here that, by a wide margin, the strongest resonances are all associated with Miranda. Furthermore, we show that the hypothesis that the rings are made up of librating particles, while original and ingenious, is incorrect.
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References
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GOLDREICH, P., NICHOLSON, P. Revenge of tiny Miranda. Nature 269, 783–785 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/269783b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/269783b0
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