Search Publications
Saturn Satellites as Seen by Cassini Mission
Capaccioni, F.; Orosei, R.; Cerroni, P. +5 more
In this paper we will summarize some of the most important results of the Cassini mission concerning the satellites of Saturn. The Cassini Mission was launched in October 1997 on a Titan IV-Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral. Cassini mission was always at risk of cancelation during its development but was saved many times thanks to the great inter…
AKARI—Infrared Satellite Mission—Present Status and Early Results
Onaka, Takashi
AKARI, formerly known as ASTRO-F, is a satellite mission dedicated to infrared astronomy for the first time in Japan. It has a 685-mm aperture telescope with two focal-plane instruments cooled by liquid helium (LHe) and mechanical coolers on board for observations in the 2–180 µm infrared spectral range. AKARI was launched on 2006 February 2…
The Atmospheres of Saturn and Titan in the Near-Infrared First Results of Cassini/vims
Sotin, C.; Brown, R. H.; Baines, K. H. +21 more
The wide spectral coverage and extensive spatial, temporal, and phase-angle mapping capabilities of the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini-Huygens Orbiter are producing fundamental new insights into the nature of the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan. For both bodies, VIMS maps over time and solar phase angles provide in…
Cassini CIRS Observations of a Roll-Off in Saturn Ring Spectra at Submillimeter Wavelengths
Edgington, S. G.; Spilker, L. J.; Pilorz, S. H. +4 more
The Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) spatially resolved Saturn's main rings in the far-infrared, measuring the spectrum from 20 to 400 wavenumbers (cm‑1) (tens of microns to submillimeter wavelengths). We find a spectral roll-off below 50 cm‑1 (200 µm) for each of the A, B and C rings. From these data we d…
Dust Activity in Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from February 20 to April 20, 2003
Lara, L. M.; Gutiérrez, P. J.; Licandro, J. +1 more
Broadband imaging of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has provided more data on the characterisation of the target of the ESA Rosetta Mission. The comet monitoring between rh=2.37 and rh=2.78 AU postperihelion shows a prominent dust coma which extends up to ≈ 25,000 km from the nucleus, and a long dust structure in approximate…
Titan's Ground Reflectance Retrieval from Cassini-Vims Data Taken during the July 2ND, 2004 Fly-By at 2 AM UT
D'Aversa, E.; Orosei, R.; Coradini, A. +5 more
An attempt to evaluate the preliminary values of the Titan's surface albedo at 2 µm from the first Cassini-VIMS observations of the moon is presented. The methodology is based on the application of radiative transfer calculations and a microphysical model of the Titan atmosphere based on fractal aerosol. As a first guess, the surface has bee…
Modeling the Sporadic Meteoroid Background Cloud
Dikarev, V.; Grün, E.; Landgraf, M. +3 more
The orbital distributions of dust particles in interplanetary space are revised in the ESA meteoroid model to incorporate more observational data and to comply with the constraints due to the long-term particle dynamics under the planetary gravity and Poynting–Robertson effect. Infrared observations of the zodiacal cloud by the COBE Earth-bound ob…
Meteoroid Streams Associated to Comets 9P/Tempel 1 and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Jorda, L.; Lamy, P.; Vaubaillon, J.
The meteoroid streams associated to short-period comets 9P/Tempel 1 (the target of the Deep Impact mission). and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (the target of the Rosetta mission) are studied. Their structure is overwhelmingly under the control of Jupiter and repeated relatively close encounters cause a reversal of the direction of the spati…
Transneptunian Binaries
Noll, Keith S.
The discovery of binaries among the population of transneptunian objects isa landmark advance in the study of this remote region of the solar system.Determination of binary orbits will enable direct determination of systemmasses, fundamental for determination of density, internal structure, and bulkcomposition. The mere existence of binaries with …
HST Photometry of trans-Neptunian Objects
Buie, M. W.; Spencer, J. R.; Cruikshank, D. P. +6 more
From July 2001 to June 2002, an HST snapshot program obtained V, R and I photometry for 72 TNOs. The TNOs were sorted by dynamical class, and Spearman rank correlation statistics were calculated for each combination of color and orbital parameter. No strong correlations were found for the combined sample of TNOs, the resonant TNOs, or the non-reso…