shepherd satelliteastronomy
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Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
Assorted References
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Saturn
( in Saturn: Orbital and rotational dynamics )
Pandora and its nearest neighbour moon, Prometheus, have been dubbed shepherd moons because of their influence on ring particles. During Voyager 1’s flyby, the two bodies were discovered orbiting on either side of the narrow F ring, which itself had been found only a year earlier by Pioneer 11. The moons’ gravitational interactions with the F ring produce a “shepherding” effect, in...
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Uranus
( in Uranus: The ring system )
...between the tightly packed ring particles would naturally lead to an increase in the radial width of the rings. Moons more massive than the rings can halt this spreading in a process called shepherding. Certain orbits that lie inside or outside the orbit of a given ring are at the proper radius for a moon in such an orbit to establish a stable dynamic resonance with the ring particles....
Citations
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Saturn Saturn
Pandora and its nearest neighbour moon, Prometheus, have been dubbed shepherd moons because of their influence on ring particles. During Voyager 1’s flyby, the two bodies were discovered orbiting on either side of the narrow F ring, which itself had been found only a year earlier by Pioneer 11. The moons’ gravitational interactions with the F ring produce a “shepherding” effect, in...
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Uranus Uranus
...between the tightly packed ring particles would naturally lead to an increase in the radial width of the rings. Moons more massive than the rings can halt this spreading in a process called shepherding. Certain orbits that lie inside or outside the orbit of a given ring are at the proper radius for a moon in such an orbit to establish a stable dynamic resonance with the ring particles....
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satellites of Neptune Neptune
...Adams. Le Verrier, which is about 110 km (70 miles) in radial width, closely resembles the nonarc regions of Adams. Similar to the relationship between the moon Galatea and the ring Adams, the moon Despina orbits Neptune just planetward of the ring Le Verrier. Each moon may gravitationally repel particles near the inner edge of its respective ring, acting as a shepherd moon to keep ring...
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