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Sizes, shapes, and derived properties of the saturnian satellites after the Cassini nominal mission
Thomas, P. C.
The Cassini spacecraft has provided data on over twenty satellites orbiting Saturn. In this study we update the shape measurements derived from imaging data of nearly all the observed regular satellites (those with low eccentricities and inclinations) and briefly discuss some of the implications of their properties. In particular, the improved dat…
Analysis of Cassini/CIRS limb spectra of Titan acquired during the nominal mission. I. Hydrocarbons, nitriles and CO 2 vertical mixing ratio profiles
Bézard, Bruno; Vinatier, Sandrine; Nixon, Conor A. +8 more
Observations of the Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) during the entire nominal Cassini mission (2004-2008) provide us with an accurate global view of composition and temperature in the middle atmosphere of Titan (between 100 and 500 km). We investigated limb spectra acquired at 0.5cm resolution at nine different latitudes between 56°S and 80…
Titan trace gaseous composition from CIRS at the end of the Cassini-Huygens prime mission
Teanby, N. A.; Flasar, F. M.; Lavvas, P. +10 more
This paper reports on the results from an extensive study of all nadir-looking spectra acquired by Cassini/CIRS during the 44 flybys performed in the course of the nominal mission (2004-2008). With respect to the previous study (Coustenis, A., and 24 colleagues [2007]. Icarus 189, 35-62, on flybys TB-T10) we present here a significantly richer dat…
How the Enceladus dust plume feeds Saturn’s E ring
Schmidt, Jürgen; Kempf, Sascha; Beckmann, Uwe
Pre-Cassini models of Saturn's E ring [Horányi, M., Burns, J., Hamilton, D., 1992. Icarus 97, 248-259; Juhász, A., Horányi, M., 2002. J. Geophys. Res. 107, 1-10] failed to reproduce its peculiar vertical structure inferred from Earth-bound observations [de Pater, I., Martin, S.C., Showalter, M.R., 2004. Icarus 172, 446-454]. After the discovery of…
Impact craters on Titan
Cassini Radar Team; Wood, Charles A.; Lorenz, Ralph +4 more
Five certain impact craters and 44 additional nearly certain and probable ones have been identified on the 22% of Titan's surface imaged by Cassini's high-resolution radar through December 2007. The certain craters have morphologies similar to impact craters on rocky planets, as well as two with radar bright, jagged rims. The less certain craters …
Thermal inertia and bolometric Bond albedo values for Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus as derived from Cassini/CIRS measurements
Spencer, J. R.; Howett, C. J. A.; Pearl, J. +1 more
Spectra taken by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) between 10 and 600 cm -1 (17-1000 µm) of surface thermal emission of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus have been used to derive the thermal inertia and bolometric Bond albedo values. Only an upper limit for the bolometric Bond albedo of Iapetus' dark…
Distribution and interplay of geologic processes on Titan from Cassini radar data
Stiles, B.; Callahan, P.; Cassini RADAR Team +23 more
The Cassini Titan Radar Mapper is providing an unprecedented view of Titan's surface geology. Here we use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image swaths (Ta-T30) obtained from October 2004 to December 2007 to infer the geologic processes that have shaped Titan's surface. These SAR swaths cover about 20% of the surface, at a spatial resolution ranging…
Collisional spreading of Enceladus’ neutral cloud
Johnson, R. E.; Cassidy, T. A.
We describe a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) model of Enceladus' neutral cloud and compare its results to observations of OH and O orbiting Saturn. The OH and O are observed far from Enceladus (at 3.95 R S), as far out as 25 R S for O. Previous DSMC models attributed this breadth primarily to ion/neutral scattering (inc…
Shell thickness variations and the long-wavelength topography of Titan
Nimmo, F.; Bills, B. G.
The long-wavelength topography of Titan has an amplitude larger than that expected from tidal and rotational distortions at its current distance from Saturn. This topography is associated with small gravity anomalies, indicating a high degree of compensation. Both observations can be explained if Titan has a floating, isostatically-compensated ice…
Carbon dioxide on the satellites of Saturn: Results from the Cassini VIMS investigation and revisions to the VIMS wavelength scale
Nicholson, Philip D.; Baines, Kevin H.; Buratti, Bonnie J. +15 more
Several of the icy satellites of Saturn show the spectroscopic signature of the asymmetric stretching mode of C-O in carbon dioxide (CO 2) at or near the nominal solid-phase laboratory wavelength of 4.2675 µm (2343.3 cm -1), discovered with the Visible-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on the Cassini spacecraft. We r…