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Astrometric reduction of Cassini ISS images of the Saturnian satellites Mimas and Enceladus

Charnoz, S.; Cooper, N. J.; Lainey, V. +2 more

Aims: We provide astrometric observations of two of Saturn's main satellites, Mimas and Enceladus, using high resolution Cassini ISS Narrow Angle Camera images.
Methods: We developed a simplified astrometric reduction model for Cassini ISS images as an alternative to the one proposed by the Jet Propulsion Labratory (JPL). The particular …

The production of craters on the mid-sized Saturnian satellites by Centaur objects

Di Sisto, R. P.; Zanardi, M.

Context. The Saturnian satellite system has been observed in detail by the Cassini-Huygens mission. These satellites present different surface features, including impact craters caused by small objects probably coming from the trans-Neptunian region.
Aims: In this paper we calculate the production of craters on the mid-sized Saturnian satelli…

Spectral characteristics of the Titanian haze at 1-5 micron from Cassini/VIMS solar occultation data

Courtin, Régis; Kim, Sang J.

We retrieved optical-depth spectra of the Titanian haze in the range 1-5 µm from solar occultation data obtained by the Cassini/Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) at altitudes of 59-502 km. Only limited wavelength intervals within this spectral range have been analyzed before. The haze spectra we retrieved are mostly similar to thos…

Rotational non-LTE in HCN in the thermosphere of Titan: Implications for the radiative cooling

Hartogh, P.; Rezac, L.; Kutepov, A. A. +2 more

Context. The thermal structure of Titan's thermosphere is determined by the balance between several heating and cooling processes. These processes must be accurately modeled to correctly interpret the available measurements and enhance our understanding of the formation and evolution of this atmosphere. One of the most important thermospheric cool…

Polarization of Saturn's moon Iapetus. III. Models of the bright and the dark sides

Muinonen, K.; Tozzi, G. P.; Boehnhardt, H. +4 more

Context. Like many other atmosphereless solar system bodies, Iapetus exhibits a phenomenon of negative polarization at small phase angles, which can be modeled using theoretical approaches that consider interaction of light with a complex medium.
Aims: To retrieve information on the nature of Iapetus' surface material, we carried out theoreti…

Polarization of Saturn's moon Iapetus. II. Comparison of the dark and the bright sides

Muinonen, K.; Tozzi, G. P.; Boehnhardt, H. +3 more

Context. The surface properties of atmosphereless solar system objects can be constrained by investigating the nature of the polarized light scattered from their surfaces.
Aims: We provide new and precise measurements of the phase angle and the wavelength dependence of linear polarization on the leading side of Iapetus over the maximum phase …