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The study of hillslopes is a primary element of geomorphology and has successfully been used in many terrestrial arenas. In this study we take advantage of High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery as well as Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) derived DEMs of the Pathfinder landing site to study regional hillslopes at resolutions many times greater than previously available and compare them...
Sub-pixel slope variations can have significant effects on the intensity of light scattered from a planetary surface. As a result, determination of the surface slope from the apparent brightness of a given pixel can be confounded by uncertainly in such variations. Under a wide range of conditions, the average slope across the pixel may be different from what is inferred by photoclinometry. Because...
Radar observations in the Deuteronilus Mensae region by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have constrained the thickness and dust concentration found within mid-latitude ice deposits, providing an opportunity to more accurately estimate the rheology of ice responsible for the formation of lobate debris aprons based on their apparent age of ∼100Myr. We developed a numerical model simulating ice flow under...
We present a methodology to build a reduced chemical scheme adapted to the study of hydrocarbons in the atmospheres of giant planets and Titan. As an example, we have built a reduced chemical scheme, containing only 25 compounds and 46 reactions (including photolysis), which is well adapted to compute the abundance of the main hydrocarbons observed so far in the atmosphere of Saturn (CH 3 ...
We produced the first complete, 1:15M-scale global geologic map of Jupiter’s moon Io, based on a set of monochrome and color Galileo–Voyager image mosaics produced at a spatial resolution of 1km/pixel. The surface of Io was mapped into 19 units based on albedo, color and surface morphology, and is subdivided as follows: plains (65.8% of surface), lava flow fields (28.5%), mountains (3.2%), and patera...
The origin of Neptune’s large, circular but retrograde satellite Triton has remained largely unexplained. There is an apparent consensus that its origin lies in it being captured, but until recently no successful capture mechanism has been found. Agnor and Hamilton (Agnor, C.B., Hamilton, D.P. [2006]. Nature 441, 192–194) demonstrated that the disruption of a trans-neptunian binary object which had...
We present a model of near-Earth asteroid (NEA) rotational fission and ensuing dynamics that describes the creation of synchronous binaries and all other observed NEA systems including: doubly synchronous binaries, high-e binaries, ternary systems, and contact binaries. Our model only presupposes the Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (YORP) effect, “rubble pile” asteroid geophysics, and gravitational...
We observed near-Earth Asteroid (8567) 1996 HW1 at the Arecibo Observatory on six dates in September 2008, obtaining radar images and spectra. By combining these data with an extensive set of new lightcurves taken during 2008–2009 and with previously published lightcurves from 2005, we were able to reconstruct the object’s shape and spin state. 1996 HW1 is an elongated, bifurcated object with maximum...
The Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) flown on-board the first Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, measured X-ray fluorescence spectra during several episodes of solar flares during its operational period of ∼9months. The accompanying X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM) provided simultaneous spectra of solar X-rays incident on the Moon which are essential to derive elemental chemistry. In this paper,...
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission was an impact exploration searching for a volatile deposit in a permanently shadowed region (PSR) by excavating near-surface material. We conducted infrared spectral and imaging observations of the LCROSS impacts from 15min before the first collision through 2min after the second collision using the Subaru Telescope in order to measure...
Impact craters on icy satellites display a wide range of morphologies, some of which have no counterpart on rocky bodies. Numerical simulation studies have struggled to reproduce the diversity of features, such as central pits and transitions in crater depth with increasing diameter, observed on the icy Galilean satellites. The transitions in crater depth (at diameters of about 26 and 150km on Ganymede...
The effects of a sample of 1300 individual stellar encounters spanning a wide range of parameter values (mass, velocity and encounter distance) are investigated. Power law fits for the number of injected comets demonstrate the long range effect of massive stars, whereas light stars affect comets mainly along their tracks. Similarly, we show that the efficiency of a star to fill the phase space region...
Collisions resulting in fragmentation are important in shaping the mass spectrum of minor bodies in the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, and debris disks. Models of fragmentation cascades typically find that in steady-state, the solution for the particle mass distribution is a power law in the mass. However, previous studies have typically assumed that the mass of the largest fragment produced in a...
High quality VNIR spectra of 15 Vestoids, small asteroids that are believed to originate from Vesta, were collected and compared to laboratory spectra and compositional data for selected HED meteorites. A combination of spectral parameters such as band centers, and factors derived from Modified Gaussian Model fits (band centers, band strengths, calculation of the low to high-Ca pyroxene ratio) were...
Future missions to the Moon may require numerous landings at the same site. Since the top few centimeters are loosely packed regolith, plume impingement from the Lander ejects the granular material at high velocities. Much work is needed to understand the physics of plume impingement during landing to protect hardware surrounding the landing sites. While mostly qualitative in nature, the Apollo Lunar...
We investigate impact basin relaxation on Iapetus by combining a 3D thermal evolution model (Robuchon, G., Choblet, G., Tobie, G., Cadek, O., Sotin, C., Grasset, O. [2010]. Icarus 207, 959–971) with a spherical axisymmetric viscoelastic relaxation code (Zhong, S., Paulson, A., Wahr, J. [2003]. Geophys. J. Int. 155, 679–695). Due to the progressive cooling of Iapetus, younger basins relax less than...
We present a non-invasive technique for measuring the thermal conductivity of fragile and sensitive materials. In the context of planet-formation research, the investigation of the thermal conductivity of porous dust aggregates provide important knowledge about the influence of heating processes, like internal heating by radioactive decay of short-lived nuclei, e.g. 26 Al, on the evolution...
We evaluate the evidence for the presence of mineral spectral signatures indicative of the past presence of water at two putative paleolakes on Mars using observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Compact Reconnaissance Image Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). CRISM spectra of both sites are consistent with laboratory spectra of Mg-rich phyllosilicates. Our analysis represents the first detailed...
With more than 15years since the first radial velocity discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star, the time baseline for radial velocity surveys is now extending out beyond the orbit of Jupiter analogs. The sensitivity to exoplanet orbital periods beyond that of Saturn orbital radii however is still beyond our reach such that very few clues regarding the prevalence of ice giants orbiting solar...
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