Search Publications
Global Spectral Properties and Lithology of Mercury: The Example of the Shakespeare (H-03) Quadrangle
Capaccioni, F.; Doressoundiram, A.; Perna, D. +4 more
The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging mission showed the surface of Mercury with an accuracy never reached before. The morphological and spectral analyses performed thanks to the data collected between 2008 and 2015 revealed that the Mercurian surface differs from the surface of the Moon, although they look visually very…
Surface Temperatures and Water Ice Sublimation Rate of Oxo Crater: A Comparison With Juling Crater
Raponi, A.; De Sanctis, M. C.; Formisano, M. +3 more
Dwarf planet Ceres is characterized by several sites hosting (or have hosted) ice-rich patches as revealed by the Dawn's Visible and InfraRed spectrometer. The study of the illumination conditions including the effects of the local topography become critical in the estimation of the ice lifetime as well as the water vapor production rate. In this …
Solar-Related Variations of the Cloud Top Circulation Above Aphrodite Terra From VMC/Venus Express Wind Fields
Bertaux, J. -L.; Zasova, L. V.; Titov, D. V. +3 more
Winds derived by a digital tracking technique from ultraviolet (365 nm) images captured by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard the Venus Express spacecraft from 2006 to 2013 were used to study the atmospheric circulation at cloud top level (70 ± 2 km). This data set allows variations of the wind speed with both latitude and longitude to be s…
Islands of ice on Mars and Pluto
Bapst, Jonathan; Byrne, Shane; Becerra, Patricio +1 more
Ice sheets, such as the polar layered deposits (PLDs) of Mars, are of great interest as records of past climate. Smaller outlier ice deposits near the north and south PLDs are likely more sensitive to climate changes and thus may hold information about more recent climate history. However, the southern outlier deposits have largely remained unmapp…
Degradation of Endeavour Crater Based on Orbital and Rover-Based Observations in Combination With Landscape Evolution Modeling
Arvidson, R. E.; Grant, J. A.; Wilson, S. A. +3 more
Exploration of Endeavour crater's Shoemaker formation rim rocks by the Opportunity rover, combined with extensive observations from the Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters, provides unique and quantitative insights into the processes that have degraded this 22-km diameter Noachian age impact crater. These insights are informed by compari…
Cassini UVIS Detection of Saturn's North Polar Hexagon in the Grand Finale Orbits
Lamy, L.; West, R. A.; Esposito, L. W. +6 more
Cassini's final orbits in 2016 and 2017 provided unprecedented spatial resolution of Saturn's polar regions from near-polar spacecraft viewing geometries. Long-wavelength channels of Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument detected Saturn's UV-dark north polar hexagon near 180 nm at planetocentric latitudes near 75°N. The dark polar …
Jupiter's Turbulent Power Spectra From Hubble Space Telescope
Morales-Juberías, Raúl; Simon, Amy; Cosentino, Richard G.
Turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere was investigated with archival and ongoing observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Data sets that include one full rotation (360° longitude coverage) were used to produce complete maps of the planet's upper cloud layer. The global maps were analyzed to generate the passive tracer power spectrum of cloud fea…
Geomorphological Evidence of Localized Stagnant Ice Deposits in Terra Cimmeria, Mars
Hauber, Ernst; Jaumann, Ralf; Fawdon, Peter +3 more
The presence of snow and ice at midlatitudes of Mars cannot be explained by current climatic conditions, as surface ice is unstable. However, a large variety of debris-covered glaciers have been observed at both midlatitudes. Here, we report the presence of local, small-scale, and debris-covered stagnant ice deposits on the floor of a valley syste…
Oblique Reflections of Mars Express MARSIS Radar Signals From Ionospheric Density Structures: Raytracing Analysis
Gurnett, D. A.; Němec, F.; Morgan, D. D. +2 more
Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) radar sounder on board the Mars Express spacecraft revealed oblique reflections coming systematically from apparently stable density structures in the Martian ionosphere. Although these were typically interpreted by assuming a straight line propagation of the sounding signal at th…
Formation of Central Pits in Impact Craters on Mars: A Statistical Investigation of Proposed Mechanisms
Burr, Devon M.; Peel, Samantha E.; Tran, Liem
Central pit craters (CPCs) are complex craters that exhibit depressions within their floors or central uplifts. Some proposed models for central pit formation can be grouped by similar mechanism: (A) explosive volatile release, (B) central peak collapse, and (C) drainage of subsurface melted volatiles. We test these groups of mechanisms for centra…