Search Publications
Relative Crater Scaling Between the Major Moons of Saturn: Implications for Planetocentric Cratering and the Surface Age of Titan
Bell, Samuel W.
The chronology of the moons of Saturn, especially Titan, has been limited by a lack of strong constraints on the cratering rate, low number statistics for small-N counts of large-diameter craters, and uncertainty about whether impactors are mostly heliocentric impactors orbiting the Sun or planetocentric impactors orbiting Saturn itself. Here, I p…
Mars's Red (575-625 nm) Seasonal Approximate Reflectivity Averaged Over Mars Years 24-28 From Mars Orbiter Camera
Robbins, Stuart J.
The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft successfully orbited Mars for over nine Earth years, its instruments returning a plethora of data that still today form important, key data sets in Mars research. A relatively underutilized data set was returned from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), specifically the wide-angle component (MOC-WA), despite returning…
Anomalous Phyllosilicate-Bearing Outcrops South of Coprates Chasma: A Study of Possible Emplacement Mechanisms
Seelos, Frank P.; Murchie, Scott L.; Buczkowski, Debra L. +4 more
The formation of widespread phyllosilicate-bearing near-surface layers on Mars has often been attributed to pedogenesis, a process of weathering basaltic soils by continued exposure to meteoric water percolating down from the surface, which can result in layers of aluminum phyllosilicates forming over layers of iron-magnesium phyllosilicates. We p…
Diverse Polygonal Patterned Grounds in the Northern Eridania Basin, Mars: Possible Origins and Implications
Xiao, Long; Xu, Yi; Zhao, Jiannan +4 more
Diverse polygonal patterned grounds are found to occur in the Eridania basin system (a set of connecting irregular-shaped depressions interpreted as a paleolake basin system) located in the martian highland region between Terra Cimmeria and Sirenum. We here use multiple sets of imagery to document diverse polygonal patterned grounds in the fluvio-…
Tectono-Magmatic, Sedimentary, and Hydrothermal History of Arsinoes and Pyrrhae Chaos, Mars
Altieri, Francesca; Rossi, Angelo Pio; Carli, Cristian +1 more
Arsinoes and Pyrrhae Chaos are two adjacent chaotic terrains located east of Valles Marineris and west of Arabia Terra, on Mars. In this work, we produced a morpho-stratigraphic map of the area, characterized by a volcanic bedrock disrupted into polygonal mesas and knobs (Chaotic Terrain Unit) and two nondisrupted units. The latter present a spect…
Spatial and Temporal Variability of the 365-nm Albedo of Venus Observed by the Camera on Board Venus Express
Schröder, S. E.; Kouyama, T.; Imamura, T. +4 more
We mapped the distribution of the 365-nm albedo of the Venus atmosphere over the years 2006-2014, using images acquired by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Venus Express. We selected all images with a global view of Venus to investigate how the albedo depends on longitude. Bertaux et al. (2016,
Photochemistry of Methane and Ethane in the Martian Atmosphere
Taysum, Benjamin M.; Palmer, Paul I.
We develop an existing 1-D photochemistry model to include a comprehensive description of organic chemistry on Mars that includes the oxidation products of methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6),a longer-chain hydrocarbon that can be used to differentiate between abiotic and biotic surface releases of CH4. We f…
Nondetection of Radio Emissions From Titan Lightning by Cassini RPWS
Gurnett, D. A.; Kurth, W. S.; Fischer, G. +1 more
The Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft completed 126 close Titan flybys from 2004 until 2017. During almost all of them the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument was turned on to search for radio emissions attributed to Titan lightning. Here we report about their nondetection after close inspection of all Titan flybys throughout …
Postimpact Evolution of the Southern Hale Crater Ejecta, Mars
Balme, M. R.; Brough, S.; Ross, N. +4 more
As one of the youngest large (>100 km wide) impacts on Mars, Hale crater offers a unique opportunity to observe well-preserved deposits of Mars' former interior. We utilize visible imagery (Context Camera [CTX] and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment [HiRISE]) and elevation data (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter [MOLA], High Resolution Stere…
Distribution of Eruptive Centers on Top of Large Shield Volcanoes in the Inner Solar System: General Classification and Glimpses of Their Subvolcanic Structure
Jacobo-Bojórquez, Rocío.; Cañón-Tapia, Edgardo
Processes that occur beneath a planetary surface control the spatial distribution of volcanic features in a volcanic zone. Volcanic vents frequently form clusters and alignments controlled by the lithospheric structure and the stress field. Previous works have determined the influence of stress at different scales in a volcanic area. In this work,…