Weighing Uranus' moon Cressida with the $\eta$ ring

TL;DR

This study analyzes the $\eta$ ring of Uranus to measure the mass and density of the small moon Cressida by observing its gravitational influence on the ring's structure over multiple decades.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of Cressida's mass and density through ring perturbation analysis, linking ring dynamics to moon properties.

Findings

Radial oscillations of the $\eta$ ring match Cressida's orbital motion.

Amplitude of ring oscillations is 0.667 km, consistent with gravitational perturbations.

Derived Cressida's mass as 2.5×10^17 kg and density as 0.86 g/cm^3.

Abstract

The $\eta$ ring is one of the narrow rings of Uranus, consisting of a dense core that is 1-2 km wide and a diffuse outer sheet spanning about 40 km. Its dense core lies just exterior to the 3:2 Inner Lindblad Resonance of the small moon Cressida. We fit the $\eta$ ring radius residuals and longitudes from a complete set of both ground-based and Voyager stellar and radio occultations of the Uranian rings spanning 1977-2002. We find variations in the radial position of the $\eta$ ring that are likely generated by this resonance, and take the form of a 3-lobed structure rotating at an angular rate equal to the mean motion of the moon Cressida. The amplitude of these radial oscillations is $0.667\pm0.113$ km, which is consistent with the expected shape due to the perturbations from Cressida. The magnitude of these variations provides the first measurement of the mass and density of the moon Cressida ($m=2.5\pm0.4\times10^{17}$ kg and $\rho=0.86\pm0.16$ g/cm$^3$) or, indeed, any of Uranus' small inner moons. A better grasp of inner Uranian satellite masses will provide another clue to the composition, dynamical stability, and history of Uranus' tightly packed system of small moons.