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Uranus after Voyager 2 and the Origin of the Solar System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

A. J. R. Prentice
A. J. R. Prentice*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Monash University
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Abstract

The discoveries made by the Voyager 2 spacecraft at Uranus in January 1986 are discussed in the light of the modern Laplacian theory for the formation of the solar system. Various accounts of this theory, which has as its basis the concept of supersonic convective turbulence, have been presented at previous meetings of the ASA (Prentice 1977, 1979, 1981a). The most important confirmation by Voyager was the discovery of 2 new satellite groups near orbital radii 2½ RU and 3½ RU (RU = Uranus’ equatorial radius = 26, 200 km), as first predicted in 1977. The discovery that the densities of the Uranian satellites are consistent with these bodies having condensed in a single compositional class, consisting of anhydrous rock, NH3 ice and CH4.6H2O clathrate hydrate in normal solar proportions, confirms the hypothesis that the chemistry of all planetary/regular satellite systems are accounted for by a single choice of the turbulence parameter, namely β = 0.107 ±0.001. The implication of the Voyager data for the origin of comets is also discussed.

Type
Invited Papers
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , 1986 , pp. 394 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1985

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