Search Publications
Shoreline retreat at Titan's Ontario Lacus and Arrakis Planitia from Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem observations
Hayes, A. G.; McEwen, A. S.; Turtle, E. P. +1 more
Recent observations by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem reveal that part of the shoreline of Titan's Ontario Lacus has retreated by several kilometers and may indicate that the dark area that appeared at Arrakis Planitia (80°S, 120°W) in late 2004 has subsequently faded. These changes provide constraints on aspects of Titan's methane cycle, as …
Sorted clastic stripes, lobes and associated gullies in high-latitude craters on Mars: Landforms indicative of very recent, polycyclic ground-ice thaw and liquid flows
Balme, M. R.; Conway, S. J.; Grindrod, P. M. +1 more
Self-organised patterns of stone stripes, polygons, circles and clastic solifluction lobes form by the sorting of clasts from fine-grained sediments in freeze-thaw cycles. We present new High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images of Mars which demonstrate that the slopes of high-latitude craters, including Heimdal crater - just 25 …
A layer of ozone detected in the nightside upper atmosphere of Venus
Vandaele, A. C.; Montmessin, F.; Fedorova, A. +7 more
To date, ozone has only been identified in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. This study reports the first detection of ozone in the atmosphere of Venus by the SPICAV ultraviolet instrument onboard the Venus Express spacecraft. Venusian ozone is characterized by a vertically confined and horizontally variable layer residing in the thermosphere at …
Stardust-NExT, Deep Impact, and the accelerating spin of 9P/Tempel 1
Licandro, Javier; Vincent, J. -B.; Bhatt, B. C. +68 more
The evolution of the spin rate of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 through two perihelion passages (in 2000 and 2005) is determined from 1922 Earth-based observations taken over a period of 13 year as part of a World-Wide observing campaign and from 2888 observations taken over a period of 50 days from the Deep Impact spacecraft. We determine the following sider…
Mid-IR, Far-IR, Raman micro-spectroscopy, and FESEM-EDX study of IDP L2021C5: Clues to its origin
Rotundi, A.; Dartois, E.; Brunetto, R. +8 more
Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) are potentially of cometary origin. They may therefore provide important clues to a better understanding of the early Solar System physical and chemical conditions. A chondritic porous aggregate IDP (named L2021C5) was analyzed using mid to far FTIR (2-60 µm) micro-spectroscopy, Raman micro-spectroscopy, …
Sulfates and iron oxides in Ophir Chasma, Mars, based on OMEGA and CRISM observations
Neukum, Gerhard; Combe, Jean-Philippe; Gross, Christoph +5 more
We investigate the sulfate and iron oxide deposits in Ophir Chasma, Mars, based on short-wave infrared data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars - CRISM and from the Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité - OMEGA. Sulfates are detected mainly in two locations. In the valley between Ophir Mensa an…
Rotational dynamics and internal structure of Titan
Nimmo, Francis; Bills, Bruce G.
Estimates of the moments of inertia of Titan, as separately deduced from its gravitational field and spin pole orientation, are quite different. This discrepancy can be resolved if Titan is either not precessing as a rigid body (e.g. if the shell is decoupled from the interior by an ocean), or if the spin pole is not fully damped (e.g. due to atmo…
Multitemporal observations of identical active dust devils on Mars with the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
Neukum, G.; Reiss, D.; Zanetti, M.
Active dust devils were observed in Syria Planum in Mars Observer Camera - Wide Angle (MOC-WA) and High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) imagery acquired on the same day with a time delay of ∼26 min. The unique operating technique of the HRSC allowed the measurement of the traverse velocities and directions of motion. Large dust devils observed in …
Annual survey of water vapor behavior from the OMEGA mapping spectrometer onboard Mars Express
Maltagliati, Luca; Bibring, Jean-Pierre; Forget, Francois +4 more
We present here the annual behavior of atmospheric water vapor on Mars, as observed by the OMEGA spectrometer on board Mars Express during its first martian year. We consider all the different features of the cycle of water vapor: temporal evolution, both at a seasonal and at a diurnal scale; longitudinal distribution; and the vertical profile, th…
Asteroid (21) Lutetia as a remnant of Earth’s precursor planetesimals
Jorda, L.; Lamy, P.; Groussin, O. +7 more
Isotopic and chemical compositions of meteorites, coupled with dynamical simulations, suggest that the main belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter contains objects formed in situ as well as a population of interlopers. These interlopers are predicted to include the building blocks of the terrestrial planets as well as objects that formed beyon…