PIA01977: Uranus Rings


Uranus Rings

Caption:

Voyager 2 returned this picture of the Uranus rings on Jan. 22, 1986, from a distance of 2.52 million kilometers (1.56 million miles). All nine known rings are visible in this image, a 15-second exposure through the clear filter on Voyager's narrow-angle camera. The rings are quite dark and very narrow. The most prominent and outermost of the nine, called epsilon, is seen at top. The next three in toward Uranus -- called delta, gamma and eta -- are much fainter and more narrow than the epsilon ring. Then come the beta and alpha rings and finally the innermost grouping, known simply as the 4, 5 and 6 rings. The last three are very faint and are at the limit of detection for the Voyager camera. Uranus' rings range in width from about 100 km (60 mi) at the widest part of the epsilon ring to only a few kilometers for most of the others. This image was processed to enhance these narrow features; the bright dots are imperfections on the camera detector. The resolution scale is approximately 50 km (30 mi).

Background Info:

The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Uranus Rings Alpha Ring, Beta Ring, Epsilon Ring, Five Ring, Six Ring, Uranus
System Uranus
Target Type Ring Planet
Mission Voyager
Instrument Host Cassini Orbiter Voyager 2
Host Type Orbiter Flyby Spacecraft
Instrument Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera
Extra Keywords Disk, Grayscale, Visual
Acquisition Date
Release Date 1999-06-21
Date in Caption 1986-01-22
Image Credit NASA/JPL
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01977
Identifier PIA01977