Search Publications
Methane absorption coefficients for the jovian planets from laboratory, Huygens, and HST data
Karkoschka, Erich; Tomasko, Martin G.
We use 11 data sets of methane transmission measurements within 0.4-5.5 µm wavelength to model the methane transmission for temperature and pressure conditions in the jovian planets. Eight data sets are based on published laboratory measurements. Another two data sets come from two spectrometers onboard the Huygens probe that measured methan…
Ultraviolet dust aerosol properties as observed by MARCI
Goguen, Jay D.; Wolff, Michael J.; Malin, Michael C. +2 more
Observations by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in two ultraviolet (UV, Bands 6 and 7; 258 nm, and 320 nm, respectively) and one visible (Band 1, 436 nm) channels of the 2007 planet encircling dust storm are combined with those made by the two Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) to better characterize the si…
Photometric mapping of Asteroid (4) Vesta’s southern hemisphere with Hubble Space Telescope
Parker, Joel Wm.; Russell, Christopher T.; Thomas, Peter C. +6 more
We present the surface mapping of the southern hemisphere of Asteroid (4) Vesta obtained from Hubble Space Telescope (HST). From 105 images of Vesta through four filters in the wavelengths best to characterize the 1-µm pyroxene band, we constructed albedo and color-ratio maps of Vesta. These new maps cover latitudes -50° to +20°. The souther…
Thermal structure and composition of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot from high-resolution thermal imaging
Fletcher, Leigh N.; Hayward, T. L.; Irwin, P. G. J. +11 more
Thermal-IR imaging from space-borne and ground-based observatories was used to investigate the temperature, composition and aerosol structure of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) and its temporal variability between 1995 and 2008. An elliptical warm core, extending over 8° of longitude and 3° of latitude, was observed within the cold anticyclonic vor…
Persistent rings in and around Jupiter’s anticyclones - Observations and theory
de Pater, Imke; Wong, Michael H.; Luszcz-Cook, Statia +5 more
We present observations and theoretical calculations to derive the vertical structure of and secondary circulation in jovian vortices, a necessary piece of information to ultimately explain the red color in the annular ring inside Jupiter's Oval BA. The observations were taken with the near-infrared detector NIRC2 coupled to the adaptive optics sy…
The ultraviolet reflectance of Enceladus: Implications for surface composition
Hendrix, Amanda R.; Hansen, Candice J.; Holsclaw, Greg M.
The reflectance of Saturn's moon Enceladus has been measured at far ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths (115-190 nm) by Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS). At visible and near infrared (VNIR) wavelengths Enceladus' reflectance spectrum is very bright, consistent with a surface composed primarily of H 2O ice. At FUV wavelengths,…
Compositional heterogeneity of Asteroid 4 Vesta’s southern hemisphere: Implications for the Dawn mission
Nathues, Andreas; Li, Jian-Yang; Reddy, Vishnu +3 more
High signal-to-noise, rotationally-resolved spectra of Asteroid 4 Vesta's southern hemisphere from the 2007 opposition were used to constrain its compositional and mineralogical variations. The spectra were rotationally-phased using closely timed HST observations of Vesta by Li et al. (Li, J.-Y., McFadden, L.A., Thomas, P.C., Mutchler, M.J., Parke…
The source of widespread 3-µm absorption in Jupiter’s clouds: Constraints from 2000 Cassini VIMS observations
Sromovsky, L. A.; Fry, P. M.
The Cassini flyby of Jupiter in 2000 provided spatially resolved spectra of Jupiter's atmosphere using the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). A prominent characteristic of these spectra is the presence of a strong absorption at wavelengths from about 2.9 µm to 3.1 µm, previously noticed in a 3-µm spectrum obtained b…
(47171) 1999 TC 36, A transneptunian triple
Grundy, W. M.; Noll, K. S.; Benecchi, S. D. +1 more
We present new analysis of HST images of (47171) 1999 TC 36 that confirm it as a triple system. Fits to the point-spread function (PSF) consistently show that the apparent primary is itself composed of two similar-sized components. The two central components, A1 and A2, can be consistently identified in each of nine epochs spread over 7…
A multi-wavelength study of the 2009 impact on Jupiter: Comparison of high resolution images from Gemini, Keck and HST
de Pater, Imke; Wong, Michael H.; Fletcher, Leigh N. +6 more
Within several days of A. Wesley's announcement that Jupiter was hit by an object on UT 19 July 2009, we observed the impact site with (1) the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at UV through visible (225-924 nm) wavelengths, (2) the 10-m W.M. Keck II telescope in the near-infrared (1-5 µm), and (3) the 8-m Gemini-North telescope in the mid-infrar…