A narrow and relatively faint planetary ring surrounding Uranus, located approximately 50,024 kilometers from the planet's center.
The Lambda ring, originally designated 1986 U1R, was discovered through observations made by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft during its January 1986 encounter with Uranus.
It is situated between the
Delta and Epsilon rings and measures approximately 2 kilometers in radial width.
Unlike many of Uranus's
dense classical rings, the Lambda ring contains a more diffuse concentration of particles and
dust.
Observations have revealed variations in particle density, including localized concentrations or clumps of material distributed along the ring.
A faint additional
dust structure has also been identified
just inward of the
main Lambda ring.
The Lambda ring demonstrates that
even extremely narrow planetary rings can possess irregular internal structures and nonuniform distributions of material.