Search Publications
Carbon dioxide opacity of the Venus' atmosphere
Piccioni, Giuseppe; Adriani, Alberto; Grassi, Davide +2 more
Venus' atmosphere consists of about 95% of carbon dioxide, which accounts for most of the absorption of the radiation emitted by its hot surface. The large densities and high temperatures of Venus' atmosphere make the absorption much more complex than for low density atmospheres such as Earth or Mars. Available experimental data are at present ins…
The ages of pedestal craters on Mars: Evidence for a late-Amazonian extended period of episodic emplacement of decameters-thick mid-latitude ice deposits
Head, James W.; Kadish, Seth J.
There is significant geomorphologic evidence for the past presence of longitudinally widespread, latitudinally zoned deposits composed of ice-rich material at the northern and southern mid latitudes on Mars (lobate debris aprons, lineated valley fill, concentric crater fill, pedestal craters, etc.). Among these features, pedestal craters (Pd) are …
Possible observation of charged nanodust from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: An analysis for the ROSETTA mission
Szego, K.; Bebesi, Z.; Juhasz, A.
Nanodust particles are ubiquitous in the solar system; we may expect that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of the upcoming ROSETTA mission, is also a source of nanodust, that is dust particles of nanometer size. Due to their small size and mass, the dust detectors cannot observe them directly neither on the orbiter nor on the Philae lan…
The structure of the Venusian current sheet
Malova, H. V.; Petrukovich, A. A.; Zelenyi, L. M. +7 more
We investigate the current sheet (CS) of the Venusian magnetotail using the data collected by the Venus Express mission in 2006-2010. We have found that the observed profiles of the main magnetic field component Bx have single-scale or double-scale structures. For single-scale CSs the Bx profile is well approximated by the Ha…
Permittivity of porous granular matter, in relation with Rosetta cometary mission
Brouet, Y.; Encrenaz, P.; Levasseur-Regourd, A. C. +1 more
We report measurements in laboratory conditions of the relative complex permittivity (hereafter permittivity) of porous material on a large range of frequencies from 50 MHz to 190 GHz. Such measurements, developed in preparation of the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, specifically for the MIRO radiometric experiment, were obtain…
COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Ehrenfreund, P.; Szopa, C.; Ulamec, S. +11 more
The comet rendezvous mission Rosetta will be the first mission to encounter and land on a comet nucleus. After a 10-year journey Rosetta is set for rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission goal is: to study the origin of comets; the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications for the origin of t…
The occurrence of upstream waves in relation with the solar wind parameters: A statistical approach to estimate the size of the foreshock region
Regi, M.; De Lauretis, M.; Francia, P.
We studied the occurrence of upstream waves in the foreshock region and their relationship with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field parameters. To this purpose, we developed a method for a careful identification of the upstream wave events. The results of the statistical analyses based on Cluster data (2003-2010 years) confirm that th…
C1XS results-First measurement of enhanced sodium on the lunar surface
Grande, M.; Narendranath, S.; Sreekumar, P. +1 more
We describe the first unambiguous evidence of enhanced sodium on the lunar surface revealed by the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS). The C1XS onboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was designed to map the surface elemental chemistry of the Moon using the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. During the nine months of remote sensing observations…
Radial distribution of magnetic field in earth magnetotail current sheet
Petrukovich, A. A.; Dunlop, M. W.; Baumjohann, W. +4 more
Knowing the magnetic field distribution in the magnetotail current sheet (CS) is essential for exploring magnetotail dynamics. In this study, using a joint dataset of Cluster/TC-1, the radial profile of the magnetic field in the magnetotail CS with radial distances covering 8<r<20RE under different geomagnetic activity states (i.e…
Turbulent dynamics inside the cavity of hot flow anomaly
Dandouras, I.; Facskó, G.; Kovács, P.
In this paper the turbulent dynamics of a hot flow anomaly (HFA) event is investigated. The HFAs are transient plasma disturbances generated by the interaction of the bow shock (BS) and a tangential discontinuity (TD) embedded in the solar wind. The typical changes of the plasma parameters inside HFAs (increased plasma temperature, low bulk veloci…