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From: bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: StarDate: August 25 On To Neptune
Message-ID: <1561@islenet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Aug-85 04:44:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: islenet.1561
Posted: Sat Aug 31 04:44:44 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Sep-85 09:12:30 EDT
References: <602@utastro.UUCP>
Organization: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics
Lines: 24

> There's a great riddle concerning the question of rings for the planet
> -- since Neptune is now the only gas giant world NOT known to have
> them.  There's evidence that Neptune does have rings.  Voyager 2 would
> tell us for sure.

More precisely, there have been a few, inconsistent reports of observations
of rings or additional satellites around Neptune.  The reports were few and
inconsistent ... until August 19th when Brahic, Sicardy, Perrier and
McLaren observed an occultation of Neptune at the Canada-France-Hawaii
telescope atop Mauna Kea.  The star disappeared behind Neptune, reappeared
73 minutes later, then dimmed a bit 13 minutes later for less than two
seconds.

Their conclusion:  "...indicating the presence of an object or group of
objects" in orbit around the planet.  In short, a very strong indication of
a ring system.

NASA's infrared telescope, also on Mauna Kea, verified with similar
observations at the same time.

Of course, no one will know for sure until the Voyager II rendezvous...
-- 
Bob Cunningham  {dual|vortex|ihnp4}!islenet!bob
Hawaii Institute of Geophysics