Springer Physics of Planetary Rings: Celestial Mechanics of Continuous Media (Astronomy and Astrophysics Library)

This monograph presents the first comprehensive and detailed explanation for the planetary rings of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune, exploring their striking, recently discovered structures such as narrow ringlets, spiral waves, and chain of vortices. This authoritative book is written in an accessible and engrossing style and is supplemented with an array of informative illustrations that will be of interest to professional and amateur astronomers, physicists, and students. Review From the reviews "The book will become essential reading for all researchers into the diverse ring systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune." Irish Astronomical Journal, 2000 From the Back Cover Physics of Planetary Rings describes striking structures in the planetary rings of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune. In Saturn, the rings are stratified into thousands of ringlets united in a complex hierarchical structure with spiral waves and gaps; in Uranus, they are compressed into narrow streams; and in Neptune, one observes a chain of clumps. This abundance of dynamical structures is the result of unique instabilities and the resonance action of satellites. The authors have made decisive contributions to research into collisional, collective and resonance phenomena in planetary rings. They correctly predicted the existence of unknown Uranian satellites prior to the Voyager 2 fly-by. The combination of a high quality description, interesting illustrations and a fascinating and natural presentation will make this book of great interest to a broad readership, including astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, students and amateur astronomers.