Neptune's Story.

It is conjectured that Triton was captured from a heliocentric orbit as the result of a collision with what was then one of Neptune's regular satellites. The immediate post-capture orbit was highly eccentric with a semimajor axis a approximately 10(3)R(N) and a periapse distance rp that oscillated periodically above a minimum value of about 5R(N). Dissipation due to tides raised by Neptune in Triton caused Triton's orbit to evolve to its present state in less, similar10(9) years. For much of this time Triton was almost entirely molten. While its orbit was evolving, Triton cannibalized most of the regular satellites of Neptune and also perturbed Nereid, thus accounting for that satellite's highly eccentric and inclined orbit. The only regular satellites of Neptune that survived were those that formed well within 5R(N) and they move on inclined orbits as the result of chaotic perturbations forced by Triton. Neptune's arcs are confined around the corotation resonances of one of these inner satellites. The widths and lengths of the arcs imply that the satellite's radius is at least 30/(sin i)(2/3) kilometers for i less, similar 1, where i is the angle of inclination.

Eccentric ringlet in the maxwell gap at 1.45 saturn radii: multi-instrument voyager observations.

The Voyager spacecraft observed a narrow, eccentric ringlet in the Maxwell gap (1.45 Saturn radii) in Saturn's rings. Intercomparison of the Voyager imaging, photopolarimeter, ultraviolet spectrometer, and radio science observations yields results not available from individual observations. The width of the ringlet varies from about 30 to about 100 kilometers, its edges are sharp on a radial scale < 1 kilometer, and its opacity exhibits a double peak near the center. The shape and width of the ringlet are consistent with a set of uniformly precessing, confocal ellipses with foci at Saturn's center of mass. The ringlet precesses as a unit at a rate consistent with the known dynamical oblateness of Saturn; the lack of differential precession across the ringlet yields a ringlet mass of about 5 x 10(18) grams. The ratio of surface mass density to particle cross-sectional area is about five times smaller than values obtained elsewhere in the Saturn ring system, indicating a relatively larger fraction of small particles. Also, comparison of the measured transmission of the ringlet at radio, visible, and ultraviolet wavelengths indicates that about half of the total extinction is due to particles smaller than 1 centimeter in radius, in contrast even with nearby regions of the C ring. However, the color and brightness of the ringlet material are not measurably different from those of nearby C ring particles. We find this ringlet is similar to several of the rings of Uranus.

Rotation of the sun.

Dicke has interpreted his recent measurement of the sun's oblateness as implying a fast (1.8-day period) rotation of the solar radiative interior. We find that differentially rotating solar models, such as the one proposed by Dicke, are unstable. The rate of turbulent diffusion in the unstable regions of these models is so rapid that it appears to preclude a fast spinning solar interior. As a corollary of the stability analysis, we conclude that the loss of a significant fraction of a star's angular momentum must be accomnpanied by the mixing of material below its convective zone. Such mixing inevitably leads to the depletion of lithium in the star's photosphere.