scholarly journals Are there rings around Pluto?

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-10
Author(s):  
J. J. Rawal ◽  

Considering effects of tidal plus centrifugal stress acting on icy-rocks and the tensile strength thereof, icy-rocks being in the density range (1–2.4) g cm-3 which had come into existence as collisional ejecta (debris) in the vicinity of Pluto at the time when Pluto-Charon system came into being as a result of a giant impact of a Kuiper Belt Object on the primordial Pluto, it is shown, here, that these rocks going around Pluto in its vicinity are under slow disruption generating a stable ring structure consisting of icy-rocks of diameters in the range (20–90) km, together with fine dust and particles disrupted off the rocks, and spread all over the regions in their respective Roche Zones, various Roche radii being in ~1/2 three-body mean motion resonance. Calculations of gravitational spheres of influence of Pluto which turns out to be 4.2 x 106 km for prograde orbits and 8.5 x 106 km for retrograde orbits together with the existence of Kuiper Belt in the vicinity of Pluto assure that there may exist a few rocks (satellites)/dust rings/sheets so far undiscovered moving in prograde orbits around the planet and few others which are distant ones and move around Pluto in the region between 4.2x106 km and 8.5x106 km in retrograde orbits.

Nature ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 362 (6422) ◽  
pp. 730-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Jewitt ◽  
Jane Luu

2006 ◽  
Vol 640 (1) ◽  
pp. L87-L89 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M Barkume ◽  
M. E. Brown ◽  
E. L. Schaller

Nature ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 432 (7018) ◽  
pp. 731-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Jewitt ◽  
Jane Luu

Icarus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 356 ◽  
pp. 113723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D. Hofgartner ◽  
Bonnie J. Buratti ◽  
Susan D. Benecchi ◽  
Ross A. Beyer ◽  
Andrew Cheng ◽  
...  

1996 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane X. Luu ◽  
David C. Jewitt

2005 ◽  
Vol 632 (1) ◽  
pp. L45-L48 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Brown ◽  
A. H. Bouchez ◽  
D. Rabinowitz ◽  
R. Sari ◽  
C. A. Trujillo ◽  
...  

Science ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 276 (5314) ◽  
pp. 937-939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Brown ◽  
Dale P. Cruikshank ◽  
Yvonne Pendleton ◽  
Glenn J. Veeder

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document