Search Publications
Mechanisms and timescales of fluvial activity at Mojave and other young Martian craters
Warner, Nicholas H.; Gupta, Sanjeev; Kim, Jung-Rack +1 more
Mojave Crater, and five other relatively young Late Hesperian to Amazonian-age Martian craters exhibit channelized alluvial fans that are sourced from bedrock-eroded catchments. These catchments emerge from the crests of sloping surfaces, suggesting a formation mechanism that involved precipitation. The evidence for fluvial activity at all six cra…
Insights into Titan's geology and hydrology based on enhanced image processing of Cassini RADAR data
Lucas, Antoine; Aharonson, Oded; Hayes, Alexander G. +3 more
The Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar has been acquiring images of Titan's surface since October 2004. To date, 59% of Titan's surface has been imaged by radar, with significant regions imaged more than once. Radar data suffer from speckle noise hindering interpretation of small-scale features and comparison of reimaged regions for change detection…
Modeling VIRTIS/VEX O2(a1∆g) nightglow profiles affected by the propagation of gravity waves in the Venus upper mesosphere
Bellucci, G.; Altieri, F.; Piccioni, G. +3 more
In this work we describe a model of the perturbation of the O2(a1Δg) nightglow limb profiles by the action of gravity waves (GWs) propagating in the Venus' upper atmosphere. Data have been acquired by the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board the European Space Agency mission Venus Exp…
The atypical generation mechanism of Titan's Schumann resonance
Béghin, Christian
The observation of a presumed Schumann resonance (SR) during the landing of the Huygens Probe in Titan's atmosphere on January 2005 was subsequently reported and interpreted by Béghin et al. (2007, 2009, 2010, 2012) as being generated through the interaction of Saturn's magnetosphere with Titan's ionosphere rather than from the lightning activity …
Eastern Olympus Mons Basal Scarp: Structural and mechanical evidence for large-scale slope instability
Weller, M. B.; McGovern, P. J.; Fournier, T. +1 more
The expression of the Eastern Olympus Mons Basal Scarp (EOMBS) is seemingly unique along the edifice. It exhibits two slope-parallel structures: a nearly 100 km long upslope extensional normal fault system and a downslope contractional wrinkle ridge network, a combination that is found nowhere else on Olympus Mons. Through structural mapping and n…
The location of Airy-0, the Mars prime meridian reference, from stereo photogrammetric processing of THEMIS IR imaging and digital elevation data
Neukum, G.; Kirk, R. L.; Neumann, G. A. +7 more
The small crater Airy-0 was selected from Mariner 9 images to be the reference for the Mars prime meridian. Initial analyses in the year 2000 tied Viking Orbiter and Mars Orbiter Camera images of Airy-0 to the evolving Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter global digital terrain model to update the location of Airy-0. Based upon this tie and radiometric tr…
Predicting the characteristics of thunder on Titan: A framework to assess the detectability of lightning by acoustic sensing
Petculescu, Andi; Kruse, Roland
The search for lightning is an important item on the agenda for the future exploration of Titan. Thunder, as a direct lightning signature, can be used, together with electromagnetic signals, to corroborate and quantify lightning. Using Cassini-Huygens data and model predictions, the main characteristics of thunder produced by a potential 20 km clo…
Hydrous minerals on Mars as seen by the CRISM and OMEGA imaging spectrometers: Updated global view
Mangold, N.; Bibring, J. -P.; Poulet, F. +2 more
The surface of Mars has preserved the record of early environments in which its basaltic crust was altered by liquid water. These aqueous environments have survived in the form of hydrological morphologies and alteration minerals, including clays and hydrated salts. Because these minerals probe on Earth aqueous environments compatible with biotic …
Sequence of infilling events in Gale Crater, Mars: Results from morphology, stratigraphy, and mineralogy
Le Deit, Laetitia; Hauber, Ernst; Jaumann, Ralf +3 more
Crater is filled by sedimentary deposits including a mound of layered deposits, Aeolis Mons. Using orbital data, we mapped the crater infillings and measured their geometry to determine their origin. The sediment of Aeolis Mons is interpreted to be primarily air fall material such as dust, volcanic ash, fine-grained impact products, and possibly s…
Cryovolcanism on Titan: New results from Cassini RADAR and VIMS
Barnes, J. W.; Janssen, M. A.; Lunine, J. I. +13 more
The existence of cryovolcanic features on Titan has been the subject of some controversy. Here we use observations from the Cassini RADAR, including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging, radiometry, and topographic data as well as compositional data from the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) to reexamine several putative cryovolca…