Search Publications
Characterization of the Ejecta from the NASA/DART Impact on Dimorphos: Observations and Monte Carlo Models
Licandro, Javier; Kolokolova, Ludmilla; Li, Jian-Yang +26 more
The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully crashed on Dimorphos, the secondary component of the binary (65803) Didymos system. Following the impact, a large dust cloud was released, and a long-lasting dust tail developed. We have extensively monitored the dust tail from the ground and the Hubble Space Telescope. We pr…
Synchronous Rotation in the (136199) Eris-Dysnomia System
Bacon, D.; Smith, M.; Abbott, T. M. C. +48 more
We combine photometry of Eris from a 6 month campaign on the Palomar 60 inch telescope in 2015, a 1 month Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 campaign in 2018, and Dark Energy Survey data spanning 2013-2018 to determine a light curve of definitive period 15.771 ± 0.008 days (1σ formal uncertainties), with nearly sinusoidal shape and peak-to-peak flux vari…
Col-OSSOS: The Two Types of Kuiper Belt Surfaces
Marsset, Michaël; Fraser, Wesley C.; Pike, Rosemary E. +12 more
The Colors of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (Col-OSSOS) has gathered a high-quality, near-simultaneous, and brightness-complete sample of (g - r) and (r - J) colors for 102 Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) with (u - g) and (r - z) gathered for some. We present the current state of the survey and data analysis. Recognizing that the optical colors…
Probing Ganymede's Atmosphere with HST Lyα Images in Transit of Jupiter
Saur, Joachim; Roth, Lorenz; Becker, Tracy M. +6 more
We report results from far-ultraviolet observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, transiting across the planet's dayside hemisphere. Within a targeted campaign on 2021 September 9 two exposures were taken during one transit passage to probe for attenuation of Jupiter's hydrogen Lyα dayglow above the moon limb. …
Col-OSSOS: Evidence for a Compositional Gradient Inherited from the Protoplanetary Disk?
Marsset, Michaël; Fraser, Wesley C.; Pike, Rosemary E. +8 more
In the present-day Kuiper Belt, the number of compositional classes and the orbital distributions of these classes hold important cosmogonic implications for the solar system. The Colours of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (Col-OSSOS) recently showed that the observed color distribution of small (H ⪆ 6) trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) can be …
Orbits and Masses of the Small Satellites of Pluto
Porter, Simon B.; Canup, Robin M.
We present a new orbit and mass solution for the four small satellites of Pluto: Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. We have reanalyzed all available observations of the Pluto system obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope from 2005 to 2019 with the ACS, WFPC2, and WFC3 instruments, as well as the New Horizons LORRI images taken on approach to Pluto in…
The Enigmatic Abundance of Atomic Hydrogen in Saturn's Upper Atmosphere
West, Robert A.; Ballester, Gilda E.; Moses, Julianne I. +5 more
A planet's Lyα emission is sensitive to its thermospheric structure. Here we report joint Hubble Space Telescope and Cassini cross-calibration observations of the Saturn Lyα emission made 2 weeks before the Cassini grand finale. To investigate the long-term Saturn Lyα airglow observed by different ultraviolet instruments, we cross-correlate their …
Constraints on Europa's Water Group Torus from HST/COS Observations
Tsuchiya, Fuminori; Saur, Joachim; Roth, Lorenz +8 more
In situ plasma measurements as well as remote mapping of energetic neutral atoms around Jupiter provide indirect evidence that an enhancement of neutral gas is present near the orbit of the moon Europa. Simulations suggest that such a neutral gas torus can be sustained by escape from Europa's atmosphere and consists primarily of molecular hydrogen…
A Geologic Map of Vesta Produced Using a Hybrid Method for Incorporating Spectroscopic and Morphologic Data
Williams, David A.; Aileen Yingst, R.; Berman, Daniel C. +3 more
We have constructed a global geologic map of the minor planet Vesta at 1:300,000-scale using Dawn spacecraft imaging, spectroscopic, topographic, and elemental data. In this effort, we used a mapping method that requires creating two maps independently: the first map uses morphology and topography to define map units, while the second map relies o…
The Evolution of Activity and Chemical Composition in Rosetta's Comet Targets across Multiple Apparitions: Complications for CS2 as the CS Parent in Comet Nuclei
Parker, Joel Wm.; Harris, Walter M.; Bodewits, Dennis +9 more
Jupiter-family comets are ephemeral small bodies injected into the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, doomed to either sublimate all their volatiles and become inert or violently shatter from the activity. We investigate two target candidates of the ESA Rosetta mission, comets 46P/Wirtanen and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which had favorable a…