Exploration
The rings were investigated in detail during the Voyager 2 spacecraft's flyby of Neptune in August 1989. They were studied with optical imaging, and through observations of occultations in ultraviolet and visible light. Voyager 2 observed the rings in different geometries relative to the Sun, producing images of back-scattered, forward-scattered and side-scattered light. Analysis of these images allowed derivation of the phase function (dependence of the ring's reflectivity on the angle between the observer and Sun), and geometrical and Bond albedo of ring particles. Analysis of Voyager's images also led to discovery of six inner moons of Neptune, including the Adams ring shepherd Galatea.
Read more about this topic: Rings Of Neptune
Famous quotes containing the word exploration:
“I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as he coasted by....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Typography tended to alter language from a means of perception and exploration to a portable commodity.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)