Search Publications
Mud volcanism and morphology of impact craters in Utopia Planitia on Mars: Evidence for the ancient ocean
Hiesinger, H.; Erkeling, G.; Reiss, D. +1 more
Results of our detailed geological mapping and interpretation of the nature and relative and absolute model ages of units and structures in the SW portion of Utopia Planitia (20-45°N, 100-120°E) suggest the following. (1) The size-frequency distribution (SFD) of craters that both are buried by materials of the Vastitas Borealis units (VB) and supe…
Global mapping and characterization of Titan's dune fields with Cassini: Correlation between RADAR and VIMS observations
Le Mouélic, S.; Cornet, T.; Rodriguez, S. +18 more
Vast fields of linear dunes have been observed in the equatorial regions of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. As the Cassini mission, in orbit around Saturn since July 2004 and extended until May 2017, carries on, the high-resolution coverage of Titan's surface increases, revealing new dune fields and allowing refinements in the examination of their p…
Evidence for a bimodal size distribution for the suspended aerosol particles on Mars
Maltagliati, L.; Montmessin, F.; Bertaux, J. -L. +4 more
First simultaneous analysis of the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) atmospheric extinctions from SPICAM/Mars Express solar occultations in the beginning of the Northern summer (Ls = 56-97°) is presented. The two SPICAM channels allow sounding of the martian atmosphere in the spectral range from 0.118 to 1.7 µm at the altitudes f…
Evidence of Titan's climate history from evaporite distribution
Sotin, Christophe; MacKenzie, Shannon M.; Barnes, Jason W. +8 more
Water-ice-poor, 5-µm-bright material on Saturn's moon Titan has previously been geomorphologically identified as evaporitic. Here we present a global distribution of the occurrences of the 5-µm-bright spectral unit, identified with Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and examined with RADAR when possible. We explore t…
Bimodal distribution of sulfuric acid aerosols in the upper haze of Venus
Crisp, David; Zhang, Xi; Gao, Peter +2 more
Observations by the SPICAV/SOIR instruments aboard Venus Express have revealed that the upper haze (UH) of Venus, between 70 and 90 km, is variable on the order of days and that it is populated by two particle modes. We use a one-dimensional microphysics and vertical transport model based on the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmosphere…
Methane depletion in both polar regions of Uranus inferred from HST/STIS and Keck/NIRC2 observations
Sromovsky, L. A.; Fry, P. M.; Karkoschka, E. +3 more
From Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) observations of Uranus in 2012, when good views of its north polar regions were available, we found that the methane volume mixing ratio declined from about 4% at low latitudes to about 2% at 60-80°N. This depletion in the north polar region of Uranus in 2012 is similar in magnitude and depth to tha…
Plasma environment of a weak comet - Predictions for Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from multifluid-MHD and Hybrid models
Altwegg, K.; Glassmeier, K. -H.; Richter, I. +8 more
The interaction of a comet with the solar wind undergoes various stages as the comet's activity varies along its orbit. For a comet like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target comet of ESA's Rosetta mission, the various features include the formation of a Mach cone, the bow shock, and close to perihelion even a diamagnetic cavity. There are differe…
Mineral abundances at the final four curiosity study sites and implications for their formation
Poulet, F.; Bishop, J. L.; Carter, J. +2 more
A component of the landing site selection process for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) involved the presence of phyllosilicates as the main astrobiological targets. Gale crater was selected as the MSL landing site from among 4 down selected study sites (Gale, Eberswalde and Holden craters, Mawrth Vallis) that addressed the primary scientific goal…
Evidence for very recent melt-water and debris flow activity in gullies in a young mid-latitude crater on Mars
Hiesinger, H.; Hauber, E.; Johnsson, A. +2 more
Terrestrial debris flows and their deposits are mainly studied and monitored because of their hazardous nature. On Mars they may serve as geomorphologic indicators of transient liquid water. We compared the morphology of debris flow-like deposits within a young (∼0.2 Ma) mid-latitude crater on Mars with debris flow fans on Svalbard as possible ter…
Atmospheric thermal structure and cloud features in the southern hemisphere of Venus as retrieved from VIRTIS/VEX radiation measurements
Kappel, D.; Arnold, G.; Haus, R.
Thermal structure and cloud features in the atmosphere of Venus are investigated using spectroscopic nightside measurements recorded by the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) aboard ESA’s Venus Express mission in the moderate resolution infrared mapping channel (M-IR, 1-5 µm). New methodical approaches and retrieval r…