1306.3973 (Daniel Tamayo et al.)

Chaotic dust dynamics and implications for the hemispherical color asymmetries of the Uranian satellites    [PDF]

Daniel Tamayo, Joseph A. Burns, Douglas P. Hamilton

Dust grains generated by the Uranian irregular satellites will undergo chaotic large-amplitude eccentricity oscillations under the simultaneous action of radiation forces and the highly misaligned quadrupole potentials of the oblate planet and distant Sun. From a suite of orbital histories, we estimate collision proba- bilities of dust particles with the regular satellites and argue that this process may explain the observed hemispherical color asymmetries of the outermost four regular satellites of Uranus.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.3973