Search Publications
New constraints on Saturn's interior from Cassini astrometric data
Thuillot, William; Pascu, Dan; Guillot, Tristan +15 more
Using astrometric observations spanning more than a century and including a large set of Cassini data, we determine Saturn's tidal parameters through their current effects on the orbits of the eight main and four coorbital Moons. We have used the latter to make the first determination of Saturn's Love number from observations, k2=0.390 …
Winds measured by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) during the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover's Bagnold Dunes Campaign and comparison with numerical modeling using MarsWRF
Bridges, Nathan T.; Sullivan, Robert; Newman, Claire E. +9 more
A high density of REMS wind measurements were collected in three science investigations during MSL's Bagnold Dunes Campaign, which took place over ∼80 sols around southern winter solstice (Ls∼90°) and constituted the first in situ analysis of the environmental conditions, morphology, structure, and composition of an active dune field on Mars. The …
Changes in Jupiter's Zonal Wind Profile preceding and during the Juno mission
Wong, Michael H.; Atreya, Sushil K.; Orton, Glenn S. +8 more
We present five epochs of WFC3 HST Jupiter observations taken between 2009-2016 and extract global zonal wind profiles for each epoch. Jupiter's zonal wind field is globally stable throughout these years, but significant variations in certain latitude regions persist. We find that the largest uncertainties in the wind field are due to vortices or …
SPICAM on Mars Express: A 10 year in-depth survey of the Martian atmosphere
Gondet, B.; Vandaele, A. C.; Reberac, A. +24 more
The SPICAM experiment onboard Mars Express has accumulated during the last decade a wealth of observations that has permitted a detailed characterization of the atmospheric composition and activity from the near-surface up to above the exosphere. The SPICAM climatology is one of the longest assembled to date by an instrument in orbit around Mars, …
Resolved spectrophotometric properties of the Ceres surface from Dawn Framing Camera images
Russell, C. T.; Jaumann, R.; Mottola, S. +9 more
We present a global spectrophotometric characterization of the Ceres surface using Dawn Framing Camera (FC) images. We identify the photometric model that yields the best results for photometrically correcting images. Corrected FC images acquired on approach to Ceres were assembled into global maps of albedo and color. Generally, albedo and color …
Revisiting the field geology of Taurus-Littrow
Weiss, B. P.; Robinson, M. S.; Petro, N. E. +3 more
Integration of Apollo 17 field observations and photographs, sample investigations, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images, Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) spectra, and Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) S-band radar images provides new insights into the geology of the valley of Taurus-Littrow on the Moon. Connecting the …
The geological history of Northeast Syrtis Major, Mars
Mustard, John F.; Bramble, Michael S.; Salvatore, Mark R.
As inferred from orbital spectroscopic data, Northeast Syrtis Major bears considerable mineral diversity that spans the Noachian-Hesperian boundary despite its small geographic area. In this study we use observations from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, supplemented with Context Camera imagery, to characterize and map the lateral e…
Sulfur dioxide in the Venus atmosphere: I. Vertical distribution and variability
Vandaele, A. C.; Robert, S.; Montmessin, F. +18 more
Recent observations of sulfur containing species (SO2, SO, OCS, and H2SO4) in Venus' mesosphere have generated controversy and great interest in the scientific community. These observations revealed unexpected spatial patterns and spatial/temporal variability that have not been satisfactorily explained by models. S…
True polar wander of Enceladus from topographic data
Hedman, Matthew M.; Schenk, Paul M.; Burns, Joseph A. +4 more
Many objects in the solar system are suspected to have experienced reorientation of their spin axes. As their rotation rates are slow and their shapes are nearly spherical, the formation of mass anomalies, by either endogenic or exogenic processes, can change objects' moments of inertia. Therefore, the objects reorient to align their largest momen…
Impact crater relaxation on Dione and Tethys and relation to past heat flow
Schenk, Paul M.; White, Oliver L.; Bray, Veronica J. +3 more
Relating relaxation of impact crater topography to past heat flow through the crusts of icy satellites is a technique that has been applied to satellites around Jupiter and Saturn. We use global digital elevation models of the surfaces of Dione and Tethys generated from Cassini data to obtain crater depth/diameter (d/D) data. Relaxation is found t…