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Narrowband Observations of Comet 46P/Wirtanen during Its Exceptional Apparition of 2018/19. I. Apparent Rotation Period and Outbursts
Skiff, Brian A.; Feaga, Lori M.; Schleicher, David G. +4 more
We obtained broad- and narrowband images of the hyperactive comet 46P/Wirtanen on 33 nights during its 2018/2019 apparition, when the comet made a historic close approach to the Earth. With our extensive coverage, we investigated the temporal behavior of the comet on both seasonal and rotational timescales. We used CN observations to explore the c…
The Timing of Alluvial Fan Formation on Mars
Wilson, Sharon A.; Kite, Edwin S.; Holo, Samuel J. +1 more
The history of rivers on Mars is an important constraint on Martian climate evolution. The timing of relatively young, alluvial fan-forming rivers is especially important, as Mars's Amazonian atmosphere is thought to have been too thin to consistently support surface liquid water. Previous regional studies suggested that alluvial fans formed prima…
Six Outbursts of Comet 46P/Wirtanen
Duev, Dmitry A.; Southworth, J.; Bellm, Eric C. +33 more
Cometary activity is a manifestation of sublimation-driven processes at the surface of nuclei. However, cometary outbursts may arise from other processes that are not necessarily driven by volatiles. In order to fully understand nuclear surfaces and their evolution, we must identify the causes of cometary outbursts. In that context, we present a s…
The Orbit and Density of the Jupiter Trojan Satellite System Eurybates-Queta
Buie, Marc W.; Noll, Keith S.; Levison, Harold F. +8 more
We report observations of the Jupiter Trojan asteroid (3548) Eurybates and its satellite Queta with the Hubble Space Telescope and use these observations to perform an orbital fit to the system. Queta orbits Eurybates with a semimajor axis of 2350 ± 11 km at a period of 82.46 ± 0.06 days and an eccentricity of 0.125 ± 0.009. From this orbit we der…
The Scientific Value of a Sustained Exploration Program at the Aristarchus Plateau
Glotch, Timothy D.; Li, Shuai; Lucey, Paul G. +13 more
The Aristarchus plateau hosts a diversity of volcanic features, including the largest pyroclastic deposit on the Moon, the largest sinuous rille on the Moon, and intrusive and extrusive examples of evolved, Th-rich silicic lithologies. We provide an overview of previous remote-sensing measurements of the Aristarchus plateau and provide new analyse…
Knowledge Inventory of Foundational Data Products in Planetary Science
Beyer, Ross A.; Laura, Jason R.
Some of the key components of any Planetary Spatial Data Infrastructure (PDSI) are the data products that end-users wish to discover, access, and interrogate. One precursor to the implementation of a PSDI is a knowledge inventory that catalogs what products are available, from which data producers, and at what initially understood data qualities. …
No Activity among 13 Centaurs Discovered in the Pan-STARRS1 Detection Database
Wainscoat, Richard J.; Lilly, Eva; Hsieh, Henry +5 more
Centaurs are small bodies orbiting in the giant planet region that were scattered inward from their source populations beyond Neptune. Some members of the population display comet-like activity during their transition through the solar system, the source of which is not well understood. The range of heliocentric distances where the active Centaurs…
Size and Shape of (11351) Leucus from Five Occultations
Dunham, David W.; Dunham, Joan B.; Lauer, Tod R. +76 more
We present observations of five stellar occultations for (11351) Leucus and reports from two efforts on (21900) Orus. Both objects are prime mission candidate targets for the Lucy Discovery mission. Combined results for Leucus indicate a very dark surface with pV = 0.037 ± 0.001, which is derived from the average of the multichord occul…
Transmission Spectroscopy of the Earth-Sun System to Inform the Search for Extrasolar Life
May, E. M.; Mayorga, L. C.; Sotzen, Kristin S. +7 more
Upcoming NASA astrophysics missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope will search for signs of life on planets transiting nearby stars. Doing so will require coadding dozens of transmission spectra to build up sufficient signal to noise while simultaneously accounting for challenging systematic effects such as surface/weather variability, atm…
FUV Observations of the Inner Coma of 46P/Wirtanen
Parker, Joel Wm.; Harris, Walter M.; Bodewits, Dennis +6 more
Far-ultraviolet observations of comets yield information about the energetic processes that dissociate the sublimated gases from their primitive surfaces. Understanding which emission processes are dominant, their effects on the observed cometary spectrum, and how to properly invert the spectrum back to the composition of the presumably pristine s…