Search Publications
The upper atmosphere of Venus: Model predictions for mass spectrometry measurements
Wurz, P.; Galli, A.; Vorburger, A. +1 more
Venus is the closest and most similar planet to Earth in the whole solar system, yet, basic measurements are missing. The atmospheric composition has been studied to some extent with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter mission and the more recent Venus Express, however, the concentration of many species and their isotopic ratios are not yet known with satis…
Origin of Phobos grooves: Testing the Stickney Crater ejecta model
Head, James W.; Ramsley, Kenneth R.
The model of Wilson and Head (1989, 2005, 2015) interprets the grooves of Phobos as the product of sliding, rolling, and bouncing ejecta boulders from the Stickney Crater impact. To test the model of Wilson and Head (1989, 2005, 2015) we apply a dynamical physics simulation to a three-dimensional shape model of Phobos and systematically assess six…
Automated reconstruction of subsurface interfaces in Promethei Lingula near the Martian south pole by using SHARAD data
Muller, J. -P.; Xiong, S.
Subsurface layers are preserved in polar regions on Mars, which are considered to be a record of past climate changes on Mars. Orbital radar instruments like the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) transmit radar signals to Mars and receive a set of signals returned from interfaces having a contrast in dielectric prop…
The 2016 UK Space Agency Mars Utah Rover Field Investigation (MURFI)
Coates, A. J.; Butcher, F. E. G.; Fawdon, P. +50 more
The 2016 Mars Utah Rover Field Investigation (MURFI) was a Mars rover field trial run by the UK Space Agency in association with the Canadian Space Agency's 2015/2016 Mars Sample Return Analogue Deployment mission. MURFI had over 50 participants from 15 different institutions around the UK and abroad. The objectives of MURFI were to develop experi…
On the age of the Beagle secondary asteroid family
Carruba, V.
The Beagle family is a C-type subgroup of the Themis family, in the outer main belt. Previous works suggested that it could be younger than 20 Myr and a possible source for the dust in the i ≃1.4∘ α zodiacal dust band. Here we took advantage of a much larger database for Beagle family members to revisit previous age estimates of this gr…
Seasonal variation of north-south asymmetry in the intensity of Saturn Kilometric Radiation from 2004 to 2017
Morioka, Akira; Tsuchiya, Fuminori; Misawa, Hiroaki +9 more
This study investigates the long-term variation of Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR) intensity observed by the Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument on board the Cassini spacecraft from 2004 (southern summer) to 2017 (northern summer). The results show that the SKR intensity was brighter in the summer hemisphere than in the winter hemisp…
The influence of Ceres on the dynamical evolution of the Zdenekhorsky/Nemesis asteroid family
Carruba, V.; Barletta, W.
The Nemesis family, also identified as the Zdenekhorsky family by some authors, is an "incomplete" asteroid family in the central main belt, characterized by an asymmetric distribution between its left and right side, with most of its members located in the left part of the family. It has been suggested that this asymmetry, as well as the shape of…
Formation of coarse sediment lags in ice-sediment mixtures: A geomorphic signature of sublimation on regolith surfaces
Levy, Joseph S.; Aylward, Daniel S.; Schmidt, Logan M.
In many high-latitude locations on Mars, boulder sized clasts are present at the ground surface atop finer-grained sediments. These areas are concentrated in the latitude dependent mantle (LDM), an ice-rich surface unit that is globally distributed polewards of ∼30° latitude. Here, we test the hypothesis that sublimation of buried ice can drive gr…
An orbit-based remote sensing geological assessment of the CanMars Mars Sample Return Analogue Deployment (MSRAD) landing site situated in the Henry Mountains Basin, near Hanksville, Utah
Tornabene, Livio L.; Battler, Melissa; Choe, Byung-Hun +1 more
Mars-analogous and relevant terrestrial- and orbit-based remote sensing datasets were gathered and used for both an in and out of simulation geological assessment of a pre-selected "landing site" for the CanMars, Mars Sample Return Analogue Deployment (MSRAD), and Mars Utah Rover Field Investigation (MURFI) analogue missions. The analogue mission …
2012 TC4 - An unusual fast-rotating PHA with C-type taxonomy
Ip, Wing-Huen; Lin, Zhong-Yi; Ngeow, Chow-Choong
The potentially hazardous asteroid 2012 TC4 made an Earth close approach at a distance of 0.11 lunar distance on 12 October 2017. Photometric observations were carried out between October 11 and October 12 at the Lulin Observatory at short cadence. Data analysis of the light curves shows that this PHA has a fast rotation period of 12.25 min, a lig…