Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T10:22:31.210Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rotation of Uranus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Richard M. Goody
Richard M. Goody*
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

From the start of this century until the mid-1970’s the rotation rate of Uranus was reported to be 10.8 h in a retrograde sense (see, for example, Allen, 1955), but a cursory examination of the origin of this datum reveals that little confidence should be placed in it.

Three independent techniques for measuring the rotation rate are available, each very difficult and not including the most direct method of observing the motion of features across the disc. Visual observers have reported features from time to time (see Alexander, 1965, for a full historical account), but the mean diameter of Uranus is only 3.6 arcsec and large high contrast features are rare in the visible spectrum, if they exist at all.

Type
Present Knowledge of Uranus
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 60: Uranus and the Outer Planets , 1982 , pp. 143 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

References

Alexander, A. F. O. D (1965). The Planet Uranus: A History of Observation, Theory and Discovery. Faber and Faber, London.Google Scholar
Allen, C. M. (1955). Astrophysical Quantities. Athlone Press, London, p. 157.Google Scholar
Belton, M. J. S., Wallace, L. and Howard, S. (1981). The periods of Neptune: Evidence for atmospheric motions. Submitted to Icarus.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belton, M. J. S., Wallace, L., Hayes, S. H. and Price, M. J. (1980). Neptune’s rotation period: A correction and a speculation on the difference between photometric and spectrographic results. Icarus 42, 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. A. and Goody, R. M. (1977). The rotation of Uranus. Ap. J. 217, 680–687.Google Scholar
Brown, R. A. and Goody, R. M. (1980). The rotation of Uranus II. Ap. J. 235, 1066–1070.Google Scholar
Campbell, L. (1936). The rotation of Uranus. Harvard C. O. Bull. 904, 32–35.Google Scholar
Cook, A. H. (1973). Physics of the Earth and Planets. Wiley, New York, pp. 35, 132.Google Scholar
Danielson, R. E., Tomasko, M. G. and Savage, B. D. (1972). High resolution imagery of Uranus obtained by Stratoscope II. Ap. J. 178, 887–900.Google Scholar
Dollfuss, A.. (1970). x00E8;tres des planètes et satellites. In Surfaces and Interiors of Planets and Satellites (Dollfus, A., Ed.). Academic Press, New York, pp. 46–139.Google Scholar
Elliot, J. L., French, R. G., Foregl, J. A., Elias, J. H., Mink, D. and Liller, W. (1981). Orbits of nine Uranian rings. Submitted to Ap. J.Google Scholar
Franklin, F. A., Avis, C. C., Columbo, G. and Shapiro, I. I. (1980). The geometric oblateness of Uranus. Ap. J. 236, 1031–1034.Google Scholar
Greenberg, R. (1975). The dynamics of Uranus’ satellites. Icarus 24, 325–332.Google Scholar
Hayes, S. H. and Belton, M. J. S. (1977). The rotational periods of Uranus and Neptune. Icarus 32, 383–401.Google Scholar
Lockwood, G. W. and Thompson, D. T. (1978). A photometric test of rotational periods for Uranus and time variations of methane-band strengths. Ap. J. 221, 689–693.Google Scholar
Lowell, P. and Slipher, V. M. (1912). Spectroscopic discovery of the rotation period of Uranus. Lowell Obs. Bull. 2, No. 3.Google Scholar
Moore, J. H. and Menzel, D. H. (1930). The rotation of Uranus. Pub. Astron. Soa. Pac. 42, 330–335.Google Scholar
Münch, G. and Hippelein, H. (1980). The effects of seeing on the reflected spectrum of Uranus and Neptune. Astron. Astrophys. 81, 189–197.Google Scholar
Nicholson, P. D., Pensson, S. E., Matthews, K., Goldreich, P. and Neugebauer, G. (1978). The rings of Uranus: Results of the 1978 April 10 occultation. Astron. J. 83, 1240–1248.Google Scholar
Nisenson, P., Apt. J., Goody, R. and Horowitz, P. (1981). Radius and limb darkening of Titan from speckle imaging. Submitted to Astron. J.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podolak, M. (1976). Methane rich models of Uranus. Icarus 27, 473–476.Google Scholar
Podolak, M. and Cameron, A. G. W. (1974). Models of the giant planets. Icarus 22, 123–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slavsky, D. and Smith, H. J. (1978). The rotation period of Neptune. Ap. J. 226, L49–52.Google Scholar
Smith, H. J. and Slavsky, D. B. (1979). Rotation period of Uranus. B.A.A.S. 11, 568.Google Scholar
Trafton, L. (1977). Uranus’ rotational period. Icarus 3, 402–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trauger, J. T., Roessler, F. L. and Münch, G. (1978). A redetermination of the Uranus rotation period. Ap. J. 219, 1079–1083.Google Scholar