fisher@star.DEC (Burns Fisher ZKO1-1/D42 DTN 381-1466) (01/21/86)
<munch munch> Richard Snell answered my request for info about a new planet formation theory which might be confirmed by Voyager findings by talking about the "sheparding" theory of rings. I had heard of that, but it is not the same one. Here is a followup article from the Boston Globe, Saturday 21-Jan-86 (which I remembered to save this time): <start of article> 6 More Uranus moons discovered by Voyager 2 By David L. Chandler Globe Staff The discovery by the Voyager 2 spacecraft of six more moons orbiting the planet Uranus was announced yesterday. The finding adds support to a theory advanced recently by an Australian scientist. <one graph about when imaging done, etc omitted> The newly found moons are clustered together with the largest about 30 miles across, in an orbit 41,070 miles from the center of the planet. The Australian scientist, Andrew Prentice, using a formula he has been developing for the last 15 years, predicted last week at a meeting of astronomers that a moon, or perhaps more than one moon would be found at a distance of about 41,300 miles. He also had correctly predicted the position of a 7th moon, whose discovery by Voyager 2 was announced last week. <one graph about announcement date/time omitted> Many scientists had predicted that Uranus might have 18 previously unknown moons that serve as "shepherds" to keep the planet's nine rings in place. But none of the 7 moons so far found by Voyager 2 is in the right position to be a shepherd moon, so scientists at the laboratory feel they still may find 18 more moons, which would give Uranus a total of 30 and make it the largest known satellite family in the solar system. Prentice's theory of the formation of teh solar system, which allowed him to make the successful predictions, also predicts the density and composition of the moons--predictions which will be tested during the next week as Voyager 2 continues it <sic> observations as it nears the planet, which is 1.8 billion miles from the sun. "I think it's quite powerful confirmation of my theory," Prentice, a senior lecturer in mathematics at Monash University in Australia, said yesterday of the new discoveries. <end of article> Repeating: Does anyone know anything more about this theory? Anyone from Monash University on the net? Burns ...decwrl!rhea!star!fisher