earle@smeagol.UUCP (Greg Earle) (01/11/86)
From: "JPL Universe", Friday, January 10, 1986: ----------------------------------------------- VOYAGER FINDS MOON, FEATURES AT URANUS - Sixth satellite seen as Voyager zeroes in on far-out planet - A new moon orbiting the planet Uranus has been discovered in images taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. Voyager imaging team scientists at JPL found the small moon in long-exposure images of Uranus and its rings taken by Voyager 2's narrow- angle camera in late December. Conclusive evidence of the satellite's orbit was seen in pictures taken December 31, 1985 when the spacecraft was about 31 million kilometers (19 million miles) from Uranus. Voyager 2 will fly by Uranus on January 24, 1986. The new satellite (designated 1985 U1) is the sixth known to orbit Uranus. It is about 75 kilometers (35 miles) in diameter, and occupies an orbit 86,000 kilometers (53,500 miles) from the center of the planet, between the moon Miranda and the outermost of Uranus' nine known rings. The moon orbits Uranus every 18 hours, 17 minutes, 9 seconds. Another Voyager 2 photograph is the first picture to show clear evidence of latitudinal banding in the planet's atmosphere, and one of the first indicating atmospheric structure of any sort. The computer-enhanced picture is a summation of five images returned December 31, 1985, by Voyager's narrow angle camera. The spacecraft was 36 million kilometers (22 million miles) from Uranus. The concentric patterns emanate like a bull's-eye from the planet's pole of rotation, which in this view lies left of center. [ PICTURE NOT INCLUDED DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES ] ------------------------- Greg Earle JPL Spacecraft Data Systems group sdcrdcf!smeagol!earle (UUCP) ia-sun2!smeagol!earle@cit-vax.arpa (ARPA) "Just because I get to see the raw Voyager pictures 5 minutes after they are received at the JPL Deep Space Network Command Center doesn't mean you have to be SO jealous ... (tee hee)"