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Huygens’ entry and descent through Titan's atmosphere—Methodology and results of the trajectory reconstruction

Lebreton, Jean-Pierre; Pérez-Ayúcar, Miguel; Sollazzo, Claudio +2 more

The European Space Agency's Huygens probe separated from the NASA Cassini spacecraft on 25 December 2004, after having been attached for a 7-year interplanetary journey and three orbits around Saturn. The probe reached the predefined NASA/ESA interface point on 14 January 2005 at 09:05:52.523 (UTC) and performed a successful entry and descent sequ…

Absorption and reflection of radio waves in the Martian ionosphere

Morgan, D. D.; Picardi, G.; Kirchner, D. L. +2 more

Radio wave absorption in the Martian ionosphere has been predicted and tested against MARSIS radar observations. Models of the ionosphere densities and of absorption in a CO₂ neutral atmosphere were used. The appearance of ground reflections in the MARSIS observations is shown to be consistent with predictions of reflection and absorpti…

Statistics of low-frequency variations in solar wind, foreshock and magnetosheath: INTERBALL-1 and CLUSTER data

Du, J.; Shevyrev, N. N.; Zastenker, G. N.

The properties of small-scale ion flux and magnetic field fluctuations in the regions of undisturbed solar wind, foreshock and magnetosheath have been investigated. The systematic measurements of these parameters with very high time resolution, which were obtained onboard INTERBALL-1 spacecraft during 1996 2000, make it possible to examine their v…

The martian atmosphere in the region of Hellas basin as observed by the planetary Fourier spectrometer (PFS-MEX)

Forget, F.; Grassi, D.; Ignatiev, N. I. +4 more

This work presents a review of the observations acquired by the planetary Fourier spectrometer (PFS) in the region of the Hellas basin. Taking advantage of the high spectral resolution of PFS, the vertical air temperature profile can be investigated with a previously unexperienced vertical resolution. Extensive comparisons with the expectations of…

Ulysses observations of Jovian relativistic electrons in the interplanetary space near Jupiter: Determination of perpendicular particle transport coefficients and their energy dependence

Qin, Gang; Heber, Bernd; Zhang, Ming +3 more

Intensities of ∼1-10 MeV relativistic electrons in several energy channels of the high-energy telescope (HET) on Ulysses increase dramatically during its flybys of Jupiter in 1992 and 2004. Perpendicular diffusion coefficients of these particles are derived by fitting the spatial profile of Jovian electron intensity to a diffusion-convection model…

A review of SOHO/UVCS observations of sungrazing comets

Bemporad, A.; Poletto, G.; Giordano, S. +1 more

In the last 10 years more than 1000 sungrazing comets have been discovered by the LASCO coronagraphs aboard SOHO the spacecraft; from this huge amount of data it has been possible to study the common origin of these comets and to explain some of the main peculiarities observed in their lightcurves. Moreover, the UV Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) …

An overview of Jovian electrons during the distant Ulysses Jupiter flyby

Dalla, S.; Kunow, H.; Wibberenz, G. +9 more

Since the 1970's interplanetary electrons in the MeV energy range, of Jovian origin, have been extensively studied from close to the Sun to beyond the Kronian orbit, near the ecliptic. The Ulysses trajectory allowed to study the propagation of these particles, in a wide range of heliographic latitudes. The location of Jupiter with respect to the s…

Spatial variability, composition and thickness of the seasonal north polar cap of Mars in mid-spring

Hansen, G.; Grassi, D.; Formisano, V. +4 more

The planetary fourier spectrometer (PFS) for the Mars express mission (MEX) is an infrared spectrometer operating in the wavelength range from 1.2 to 45 µm by means of two spectral channels, called SWC (short wavelength channel) and LWC (long wavelength channel), covering, respectively, 1.2-5.5 and 5.5-45 µm. The middle-spring Martian …

Carbon isotopic enrichment in Titan's tholins? Implications for Titan's aerosols

Szopa, C.; Coll, P.; Raulin, F. +5 more

Since the discovery of the main composition of Titan's atmosphere, many laboratory experiments have been carried out to reproduce its chemical evolution, particularly the formation of organic haze particles found throughout this atmosphere. Some of these simulations have produced solid products - referred to as Titan's tholins - that are assumed t…

Erratum to “Cassini observations of Saturn's inner plasmasphere: Saturn orbit insertion results”. [Planetary and Space Science 54 (2006) 1197 1210]

Coates, A. J.; Johnson, R. E.; Thomsen, M. +13 more