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Focal lengths of Venus Monitoring Camera from limb locations
Limaye, Sanjay S.; Roatsch, T.; Markiewicz, W. J. +3 more
The Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) carried by European Space Agency's Venus Express orbiter (Svedhem et al., 2007) consists of four optical units, each with a separate filter casting an image on a single CCD (Markiewicz et al., 2007a, 2007b). The desire to capture as much of the planet in a single frame during the spacecraft's 24 h, 0.84 eccentrici…
Towards the automated geomorphometric extraction of talus slopes in Martian landscapes
Podobnikar, Tomaž; Székely, Balázs
Terrestrial talus slopes are a common feature of mountainous environments. Their geomorphic form is determined by their being constituted of scree, or similar loose and often poorly sorted material. Martian talus slopes are governed by the different nature of the Martian environment, namely: weaker gravity, the wide availability of loose material,…
A study of iron and dust in the supernova remnant IC 443
Onaka, Takashi; Lee, Ho-Gyu; Kaneda, Hidehiro +3 more
We performed near-infrared line mapping of the supernova remnant IC 443 with the IRSF 1.4-m telescope, using the narrow-band filters tuned for [Fe II] 1.257 µm, [Fe II] 1.644 µm, and Paβ. We detected the [Fe II] and Paβ emissions from a very wide area of the observed region (30‧ ×35‧). These line intensity maps re…
Development of a new Phobos atlas based on Mars Express image data
Oberst, J.; Zubarev, A.; Nadezhdina, I. +6 more
A new Phobos Atlas has been prepared, which includes a variety of thematic maps at various projections and scales, emphasizing dynamic topography, surface multispectral properties, geomorphology, as well as grooves- and crater statistics. The atlas benefits from innovative mapping techniques and recent results from Mars Express image processing: n…
Search for ammonia in comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)
Codella, C.; Crovisier, J.; Comoretto, G. +9 more
Comets are uniquely pristine bodies providing unique insights about the formation of our Solar System. In this work, we focus on a dynamically new comet as it enters the inner Solar System for the first time after residing for billion of years in the Oort Cloud. Such comets are particularly important because they are thought to be not differentiat…
Competence evaluation of COSAC flight spare model mass spectrometer: In preparation of arrival of Philae lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Krüger, Harald; Gautier, Thomas; Meierhenrich, Uwe J. +4 more
The Cometary Sampling and Composition (COSAC) experiment onboard the Philae lander is a combined Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer targeted to determine the organic composition of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The COSAC flight-model mass spectrometer (FM-MS) was scheduled to sample volatile organic species from 67P's coma prior…
Dust emission and scattering in dense interstellar clouds
Juvela, M.
Dust has a crucial role in the physics of interstellar medium (ISM) and it is one of the main tracers used in studies of dense clouds. Its importance has been accentuated by the large amounts of data available from the recent fleet of infrared and submillimetre satellites. These observations are providing further insights into the properties of in…
Special issue editorial - Plasma interactions with Solar System Objects: Anticipating Rosetta, Maven and Mars Orbiter Mission
Coates, A. J.; Yamauchi, M.; Wellbrock, A.
Within our solar system, the planets, moons, comets and asteroids all have plasma interactions. The interaction depends on the nature of the object, particularly the presence of an atmosphere and a magnetic field. Even the size of the object matters through the finite gyroradius effect and the scale height of cold ions of exospheric origin. It als…
Introduction to the special issue on Venus exploration
Piccioni, G.; Wilson, C.; Svedhem, H.
Venus Express ended its mission in December 2014 after an extraordinary successful eight and a half years at Venus. The first years of the mission concentrated on the original objectives of the mission, namely to study the dynamics, structure and chemistry of the atmosphere, to investigate the plasma environment and its interaction with the solar …
Dust processing in the Carina nebula region
Onaka, Takashi; Okada, Yoko; Mori, Tamami I.
Dust processing in the Carina nebula is investigated based on mid- to far-infrared spectroscopy with Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Mapping observations over a central 40‧ ×20‧ area of the nebula with PHT-S, SWS, and LWS onboard ISO not only reveal spectroscopically that the mid-infrared unidentified infrared (UIR) bands a…