The rings around Uranus have mystified astronomers for almost half a century. Now, thanks to a combination of ground- and space-based telescopic observations, scientists think they’ve worked out where two of these rings came from.
A blue-tinged ring, named Mu, seems to be made of icy shards knocked off a nearby moon by micrometeorite impacts, researchers report in the April Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Conversely, Nu, a reddish ring, is composed of rocky particles probably sourced in a similar manner from an unseen rocky moon or moons.
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