Search Publications
Measurement of D/H and 13C/12C ratios in methane ice on Eris and Makemake: Evidence for internal activity
Lunine, J. I.; Emery, J. P.; Hammel, H. B. +13 more
James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec infrared imaging spectrometer observed the outer solar system dwarf planets Eris and Makemake in reflected sunlight at wavelengths spanning 1 through 5 µm. Both objects have high albedo surfaces that are rich in methane ice, with a texture that permits long optical path lengths through the ice for solar p…
A flexible deep learning crater detection scheme using Segment Anything Model (SAM)
Giannakis, Iraklis; Bhardwaj, Anshuman; Sam, Lydia +1 more
Craters are one of the most important morphological features in planetary exploration. To that extent, detecting, mapping and counting craters is a mainstream process in planetary science, done primarily manually, which is a very laborious, time-consuming and inconsistent process. Recently, machine learning (ML) and computer vision have been succe…
A tale of 3 dwarf planets: Ices and organics on Sedna, Gonggong, and Quaoar from JWST spectroscopy
Lunine, J. I.; Emery, J. P.; Protopapa, S. +10 more
The dwarf planets Sedna, Gonggong, and Quaoar are interesting in being somewhat smaller than the methane-rich bodies of the Kuiper Belt (Pluto, Eris, Makemake), yet large enough to be spherical and to have possibly undergone interior melting and differentiation. They also reside on very different orbits, making them an ideal suite of bodies for un…
NEOMOD 2: An updated model of Near-Earth Objects from a decade of Catalina Sky Survey observations
Granvik, Mikael; Chodas, Paul W.; Nesvorný, David +9 more
Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) is a major survey of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). In a recent work, we used CSS observations from 2005-2012 to develop a new population model of NEOs (NEOMOD). CSS's G96 telescope was upgraded in 2016 and detected over 10,000 unique NEOs since then. Here we characterize the NEO detection efficiency of G96 and use G96's NEO …
The Uranus system from occultation observations (1977-2006): Rings, pole direction, gravity field, and masses of Cressida, Cordelia, and Ophelia
Nicholson, Philip D.; French, Richard G.; Hedman, Matthew M. +2 more
From an analysis of 31 Earth-based stellar occultations and three Voyager 2 occultations spanning 1977-2006 (French et al. 2023a), we determine the keplerian orbital elements of the centerlines of the nine main Uranian rings to high accuracy, with typical RMS residuals of 0.2-0.4 km and 1- σ formal errors in a , ae , and a sin i of order 0.1 km, r…
Evidence of rapid hydrogen chloride uptake on water ice in the atmosphere of Mars
Montmessin, Franck; Fedorova, Anna A.; Trokhimovskiy, Alexander +5 more
In 2020, hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the gas phase was discovered in the atmosphere of Mars with the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) onboard the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission (Korablev et al., 2021). Its volume mixing ratio (VMR) shows a seasonal increase of up to 5 ppbv during the perihelion season, followed by a sudden drop to undetectable le…
Moderate D/H ratios in methane ice on Eris and Makemake as evidence of hydrothermal or metamorphic processes in their interiors: Geochemical analysis
Grundy, William M.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Glein, Christopher R. +7 more
Dwarf planets Eris and Makemake have surfaces bearing methane ice of unknown origin. This ice can provide important insights into the origin and evolution of volatiles in the outer solar system. Deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratios were recently determined from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of Eris and Makemake (Grundy et al., 2024b), …
A study of Jupiter's UV Great Dark Spot and tropopause to stratosphere winds in the high northern latitudes as seen by Cassini imaging
West, R. A.; Sinclair, J. A.; Del Genio, A. D. +1 more
Images of Jupiter taken during the year 2000 Cassini flyby revealed the early stages and evolution of a high northern-latitude UV Great Dark Spot over a three-month period. They also provided a window on the circulation of Jupiter's polar stratosphere. Jupiter's rarely-detected UV Great Dark Spot (UVGDS) is unusual in several respects. It is an ep…
Revised upper limits for abundances of NH3, HCN and HC3N in the Martian atmosphere
Montmessin, F.; Korablev, O.; Fedorova, A. A. +7 more
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft has been studying Mars' atmosphere since 2018. The sensitivity of the middle infrared channel (MIR) allows it to address many ardent topics and it is capable of improving and establishing upper limits for many trace species. In this work we present analysi…
Novel quantitative methods to enable multispectral identification of high-purity water ice exposures on Mars using High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images
Munaretto, G.; Dundas, C. M.; Seelos, F. P. +8 more
Reliable detection and characterization of water ice on the Martian surface is pivotal to not only understand its present and past climate, but to also provide valuable information on in-situ resource availability and distribution for future human exploration missions. Ice-rich features are currently identified with visible/near-IR (VNIR), thermal…