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Solid tidal friction above a liquid water reservoir as the origin of the south pole hotspot on Enceladus
Sotin, C.; Tobie, G.; Čadek, O.
Earth, Jupiter's moon Io and Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus are the only solid objects in the Solar System to be sufficiently geologically active for their internal heat to be detected by remote sensing. Interestingly, the endogenic activity on Enceladus is only located on a specific region at the south pole, from which jets of water vapor and ice p…
Evidence for two populations of classical transneptunian objects: The strong inclination dependence of classical binaries
Noll, Keith S.; Grundy, William M.; Levison, Harold F. +2 more
We have searched 101 Classical transneptunian objects for companions with the Hubble Space Telescope. Of these, at least 21 are binary. The heliocentric inclinations of the objects we observed range from 0.6°-34°. We find a very strong anticorrelation of binaries with inclination. Of the 58 targets that have inclinations of less than 5.5°, 17 are …
The E-ring in the vicinity of Enceladus. II. Probing the moon's interior—The composition of E-ring particles
Kempf, S.; Postberg, F.; Srama, R. +4 more
The population of Saturn's outermost tenuous E-ring is dominated by tiny water ice particles. Active volcanism on the moon Enceladus, embedded in the E-ring, has since late 2005 been known to be a major source of particles replenishing the ring. Therefore particles in the vicinity of Enceladus may provide crucial information about the dynamical an…
The E ring in the vicinity of Enceladus. I. Spatial distribution and properties of the ring particles
Beckmann, U.; Kempf, S.; Postberg, F. +6 more
Saturn's diffuse E ring is the largest ring of the Solar System and extends from about 3.1R (Saturn radius R=60,330 km) to at least 8R encompassing the icy moons Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. After Cassini's insertion into her saturnian orbit in July 2004, the spacecraft performed a number of equatorial as well as steep traversals thr…
A close look at Saturn's rings with Cassini VIMS
Drossart, Pierre; Nicholson, Philip D.; Hedman, Matthew M. +13 more
Soon after the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered orbit about Saturn on 1 July 2004, its Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer obtained two continuous spectral scans across the rings, covering the wavelength range 0.35-5.1 µm, at a spatial resolution of 15-25 km. The first scan covers the outer C and inner B rings, while the second covers…
Tropical mountain glaciers on Mars: Altitude-dependence of ice accumulation, accumulation conditions, formation times, glacier dynamics, and implications for planetary spin-axis/orbital history
Head, James W.; Forget, Francois; Fastook, James L. +1 more
Fan-shaped deposits up to ∼166,000 km in area are found on the northwest flanks of the huge Tharsis Montes volcanoes in the tropics of Mars. Recent spacecraft data have confirmed earlier hypotheses that these lobate deposits are glacial in origin. Increased knowledge of polar-latitude terrestrial glacial analogs in the Antarctic Dry Valleys has be…
Hydrocarbons on Saturn's satellites Iapetus and Phoebe
Sotin, C.; Brown, R. H.; Baines, K. H. +24 more
Material of low geometric albedo ( p⩽0.1) is found on many objects in the outer Solar System, but its distribution in the saturnian satellite system is of special interest because of its juxtaposition with high-albedo ice. In the absence of clear, diagnostic spectral features, the composition of this low-albedo (or "dark") material is generally in…
Evolution and depositional environments of the Eberswalde fan delta, Mars
Hauber, Ernst; Pondrelli, Monica; Rossi, Angelo Pio +4 more
The Eberswalde crater and its contributing basins have been analyzed in detail in order to reconstruct the geological evolution of the water-related landforms with particular focus on the Eberswalde delta-like feature. Based on a complex strata organization characterized by a topset-foreset-bottomset geometry, typical of delta progradation on Eart…
Mineralogy of Terra Meridiani and western Arabia Terra from OMEGA/MEx and implications for their formation
Bibring, J. -P.; Arvidson, R. E.; Gondet, B. +5 more
Analyses of Mars Express OMEGA hyperspectral data (0.4-2.7 µm) for Terra Meridiani and western Arabia Terra show that the northern mantled cratered terrains are covered by dust that is spectrally dominated by nanophase ferric oxides. Dark aeolian dunes inside craters and dark streaks extending from the dunes into the intercrater areas in man…
Tidally driven stress accumulation and shear failure of Enceladus's tiger stripes
Pappalardo, Robert T.; Smith-Konter, Bridget
Straddling the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus, the four principal "tiger stripe" fractures are a likely source of tectonic activity and plume generation. Here we investigate tidally driven stress conditions at the tiger stripe fractures through a combined analysis of shear and normal diurnal tidal stresses and accounting for additio…