Physical processes in planetary rings

A summary of research performed in 1990 is presented. The subject areas covered include perturbed narrow rings and the dynamics of circumplanetary dust. Progress made in the area of perturbed narrow rings includes: (1) the possible discovery of an undocumented moonlet in the environs of Saturn's F ring; and (2) the investigation of the consequences of a close satellite perturbing a narrow ring using numerical simulation. Progress made in the area of circumplanetary dust includes: (1) studies of the motion of circumplanetary dust under the action of radiation pressure and various electromagnetic processes; and (2) the initiation of a systematic explanation of the curious consequences of some of the perturbations that act on small particles

Investigations of planetary ring phenomena

Faint planetary rings, their dynamical behavior and physical properties, were the main focus of the research efforts. The motion of weakly-charged dust through the gravitational and magnetic fields of Jupiter were examined. Several topics concerning features of Saturn's rings were addressed. The origin and fate of the Uranian ring dust is presently being studied

Debris about asteroids: Where and how much?

We summarize several recent findings on the size and shape of the region within which material can stably orbit an asteroid. If the asteroid (with assumed density 2.38 g/cu cm) circles the Sun at 2.55 AU, co-planar prograde material will remain trapped whenever started on unperturbed circular orbits at less than about 220 R(sub A) (asteroid radii); co-planar retrograde particles are stable out twice as far. Our 3-D stability surface, which encloses several hundred numerically calculated orbits that start with various inclinations, is shaped like a sphere with its top and bottom sliced off; its dimensions scale like the Hill radius =(mu/3)(exp 1/3)R, where mu is the asteroid-to-solar mass ratio and R is the asteroid's orbital radius. If the asteroid moves along an elliptical orbit, a fairly reliable indicator of the dimensions of the hazard zone is the size of its Hill sphere at the orbit's pericenter. Grains with radii less than a few mm will be lost through the action of radiation forces which can induce escape or cause collisions with the asteroid on times scales of a few years; interplanetary micrometeoroids produce collisional break-up of these particles in approximately 10(exp 4) yrs. The effects of Jupiter and of asteroids that pass close to the target asteroid allow particles to diffuse from the system, again shrinking the hazard zone. None of the considered sources-primordial formation, debris spalled off the asteroid during micrometeoroid impact, captured interplanetary particles, feeder satellites, etc., seem capable of densely populating distant orbits from the asteroid. No certain detections of debris clouds or of binary asteroids have been made. Thus, it seems highly unlikely that a spacecraft fly-by targeted at 100 R(sub A) from the asteroid over its orbital pole would encounter any material

Pencil-Beam Surveys for Faint Trans-Neptunian Objects

We have conducted pencil-beam searches for outer solar system objects to a limiting magnitude of R ~ 26. Five new trans-neptunian objects were detected in these searches. Our combined data set provides an estimate of ~90 trans-neptunian objects per square degree brighter than ~ 25.9. This estimate is a factor of 3 above the expected number of objects based on an extrapolation of previous surveys with brighter limits, and appears consistent with the hypothesis of a single power-law luminosity function for the entire trans-neptunian region. Maximum likelihood fits to all self-consistent published surveys with published efficiency functions predicts a cumulative sky density Sigma(<R) obeying log10(Sigma) = 0.76(R-23.4) objects per square degree brighter than a given magnitude R.Comment: Accepted by AJ, 18 pages, including 6 figure

Circadian Variation of Brain Histamine in Goldfish

Teleosts may make an excellent model to study brain histamine function. Fishes are phylogenetically closer to the basic vertebrate blueprint than higher vertebrates. They appear to have a simpler histaminergic system in terms of central nervous system distribution and, contrary to higher vertebrates, brain histamine appears to be strictly neuronal. In this preliminary study, we examined circadian variation of brain histamine in goldfish, Carassius auratus, as this neurotransmitter correlates with circadian behavior of some mammals. Two groups of juvenile goldfish were held in 24 60L aquaria, six fish per aquarium, on reversed photoperiods; L:D 12:12 with light onset either at 0700 or 1900 h. Fish were sampled every 4 h. At a sampling time, all the fish in a tank were taken; each sampling, for both groups, was done in replicate. Brain histamine was determined by immunoassay. There was a significant circadian variation in histamine on both photoperiod regimes with the highest levels during the photophase. These results support the hypothesis of an early phylogenic role for histamine in vertebrate circadian physiology