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Investigating the volcanic versus aqueous origin of the surficial deposits in Eastern Elysium Planitia, Mars
Voigt, Joana R. C.; Hamilton, Christopher W.
The Elysium Volcanic Province consists of numerous overlapping flow units and may include the youngest lava flows on Mars. However, it is possible that these volcanic units have been modified or overprinted by aqueous processes. Understanding the timing of the igneous and aqueous events in this region is therefore essential for constraining the ge…
Limb clouds and dust on Mars from images obtained by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard Mars Express
Hueso, R.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.; Titov, D. +6 more
The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard the Mars Express (MEx) spacecraft is a simple camera aimed to monitor the release of the Beagle-2 lander on Mars Express and later used for public outreach. Here, we employ VMC as a scientific instrument to study and characterize high altitude aerosols events (dust and condensates) observed at the Martian…
Charged particles radiation measurements with Liulin-MO dosimeter of FREND instrument aboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter during the transit and in high elliptic Mars orbit
Zelenyi, Lev; Semkova, Jordanka; Koleva, Rositza +21 more
ExoMars is a joint ESA-Rosscosmos program for investigating Mars. Two missions are foreseen within this program: one consisting of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), that carries scientific instruments for the detection of trace gases in the Martian atmosphere and for the location of their source regions, plus an Entry, Descent and landing demonstrator …
PRIMASS visits Hilda and Cybele groups
De Prá, M. N.; Pinilla-Alonso, N.; Carvano, J. M. +5 more
The Cybele and Hilda dynamical groups delimit the outer edge of the asteroid belt. Their compositional distribution is a key element to constrain evolutionary models of the Solar System. In this paper, we present a compositional analysis of these populations using spectroscopic observations, SDSS and NEOWISE data. As part of the PRIMASS (Primitive…
Expected spectral characteristics of (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, targets of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 missions
Pinilla-Alonso, N.; Licandro, J.; Campins, H. +9 more
NASA's OSIRIS-REx and JAXA's Hayabusa2 sample-return missions are currently on their way to encounter primitive near-Earth asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, respectively. Spectral and dynamical evidence indicates that these near-Earth asteroids originated in the inner part of the main belt. There are several primitive collisional famili…
Physical, spectral, and dynamical properties of asteroid (107) Camilla and its satellites
Kervella, P.; Berthier, J.; Carry, B. +24 more
The population of large 100+ km asteroids is thought to be primordial. As such, they are the most direct witnesses of the early history of our Solar System available. Those among them with satellites allow study of the mass, and hence density and internal structure. We study here the dynamical, physical, and spectral properties of the triple aster…
A reanalysis of ozone on Mars from assimilation of SPICAM observations
Lefèvre, Franck; Holmes, James A.; Lewis, Stephen R. +1 more
We have assimilated for the first time SPICAM retrievals of total ozone into a Martian global circulation model to provide a global reanalysis of the ozone cycle. Disagreement in total ozone between model prediction and assimilation is observed between 45°S-10°S from LS = 135-180° and at northern polar (60°N-90°N) latitudes during north…
Cloud morphology and dynamics in Saturn's northern polar region
del Río-Gaztelurrutia, Teresa; Sánchez-Lavega, Agustín; Antuñano, Arrate +1 more
We present a study of the cloud morphology and motions in the north polar region of Saturn, from latitude ∼ 70°N to the pole based on Cassini ISS images obtained between January 2009 and November 2014. This region shows a variety of dynamical structures: the permanent hexagon wave and its intense eastward jet, a large field of permanent ;puffy; cl…
Quantifying widespread aqueous surface weathering on Mars: The plateaus south of Coprates Chasma
Quantin-Nataf, C.; Millot, C.; Flahaut, J. +4 more
Pedogenesis has been previously proposed on the plateaus around Coprates Chasma, Valles Marineris to explain the presence of widespread clay sequences with Al-clays and possible hydrated silica over Fe/Mg-clays on the surface of the plateaus (Le Deit et al., 2012; Carter et al., 2015). We use previous observations together with new MRO targeted ob…
Ultraviolet spectral reflectance of carbonaceous materials
Gillis-Davis, Jeffrey J.; Hendrix, Amanda R.; Roush, Ted L. +5 more
A number of planetary spacecraft missions have carried instruments with sensors covering the ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range. However, there exists a general lack of relevant UV reflectance laboratory data to compare against these planetary surface remote sensing observations in order to make confident material identifications. To address this n…