Vital Statistics for Neptune’s Rings
Rings of Neptune
| Feature | Middle Boundary (km) | Width | Optical Depth | Type | Associated Moons | Footnotes | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galle | 42,000 | 2,000 | 10^-4 | Faint, wide | 3 | A faint and poorly understood ring. | |
| Le Verrier | 53,200 | <100 | 0.003 | Narrow | Despina | 2,3 | A narrow, axisymmetric ring. |
| Lassell | 55,200 | 4,000 | 10^-4 | Wide, diffuse | 3 | A uniform, faint ring extending outward from Le Verrier. | |
| Arago | 57,200 | Faint, wide | 3 | A brightness enhancement at the outer edge of Lassell. | |||
| Unnamed | 61,953 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | A ring of dust in the orbit of Galatea. | ||
| Adams | 62,933 | 15 | 0.003 to 0.1 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | A narrow ring containing the arcs. It shows radial wiggles due to perturbations from nearby Galatea. |
| Fraternite | 62,933 | ~15 | ~0.1 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | The brightest of five ring arcs embedded in the Adams Ring, Fraternite is the trailing arc. |
| “Egalite 1,2” | 62,933 | ~15 | ~0.1 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | Double arc in the Adams ring. Egalite 2 is located 10.7 deg ahead of Fraternite. |
| Liberte | 62,933 | ~15 | ~0.1 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | Ring arc in the Adams Ring. Located between Egalite and Courage arcs and is 12 degrees ahead of Egalite 1. |
| Courage | 62,933 | ~15 | ~0.1 | Narrow | Galatea | 3 | The dimmest of five ring arcs embedded in the Adams Ring. Courage is about 7.3 degrees ahead of Liberte in longitude. |
The table of Neptune’s inner satellites can be found here.
Sources
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Murray, C.D., and S.F. Dermott 1999. Solar System Dynamics, Cambridge University Press. DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139174817
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Porco, C.C.et al. 1995. Neptune’s ring system. In D.P. Cruikshank (ed.), Neptune and Triton, University of Arizona Press, 703-804. ISBN: 978-0-8165-1525-7
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De Pater, I., et al. 2018. The rings of Neptune. In M.S. Tiscareno and C.D. Murray (eds.), Planetary Ring Systems. Cambridge University Press, 112-124. 10.1017/9781316286791.005
