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Characteristics of the dust-plasma interaction near Enceladus’ South Pole
Kurth, W. S.; Wahlund, J. -E.; Farrell, W. M. +2 more
We present RPWS Langmuir probe data from the third Enceladus flyby (E3) showing the presence of dusty plasma near Enceladus' South Pole. There is a sharp rise in both the electron and ion number densities when the spacecraft traverses through Enceladus plume. The ion density near Enceladus is found to increase abruptly from about 10 2 c…
Retrieval and tentative indentification of the 3 µm spectral feature in Titan's haze
Sicardy, B.; Courtin, R.; Sim, C. K. +5 more
Recently, an unidentified 3.3-3.4 µm feature found in the solar occultation spectra of the atmosphere of Titan observed by Cassini/VIMS was tentatively attributed to the C-H stretching mode of aliphatic hydrocarbon chains attached to large organic molecules, but without properly extracting the feature from adjacent influences of strong CH
Structured ionospheric outflow during the Cassini T55-T59 Titan flybys
Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K.; Wahlund, J. -E. +7 more
During the final three of the five consecutive and similar Cassini Titan flybys T55-T59 we observe a region characterized by high plasma densities (electron densities of 1-8 cm-3) in the tail/nightside of Titan. This region is observed progressively farther downtail from pass to pass and is interpreted as a plume of ionospheric plasma e…
High-altitude charged aerosols in the atmosphere of Titan
Coates, Andrew; Young, David T.; Wellbrock, Anne +3 more
Observations by several instruments onboard the Cassini spacecraft revealed the existence of heavy hydrocarbon and nitrile species with masses of several thousand atomic mass units in the ionosphere of Titan. These very large molecules are in fact aerosols. The goal of this paper is to compute the concentrations of the charged aerosols in the uppe…
Measurements of the helium 584 Å airglow during the Cassini flyby of Venus
Esposito, L. W.; Gérard, J. -C.; Hubert, B. +2 more
The helium resonance line at 584 Å has been observed with the UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) Extreme Ultraviolet channel during the flyby of Venus by Cassini at a period of high solar activity. The brightness was measured along the disk from the morning terminator up to the bright limb near local noon. The mean disk intensity was ∼320 R, …