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The occultation of bright star HIP9369 by the northern polar region of Jupiter was observed from four locations in North and South America, providing four data sets for ingress and egress. The inversion of the eight occultation lightcurves provides temperature profiles at different latitudes ranging from 55 o N to 73.2 o N. We estimate the errors on the profiles due to the uncertainties...
We report unusual and somewhat unexpected observations of the jovian satellite Io, showing strong methane absorption bands. These observations were made by the Cassini VIMS experiment during the Jupiter flyby of December/January 2000/2001. The explanation is straightforward: Entering or exiting from Jupiter's shadow during an eclipse, Io is illuminated by solar light which has transited the atmosphere...
Data from the 13 May 1971 β Scorpii occultation by the southern polar region of Jupiter (Vapillon et al., 1973, Astron. Astrophys. 29, 135-149) are re-analyzed with current methods. We correct the previous results for an inacurrate background estimation and calculate new temperature profiles, that are now consistent with the results of other observers of this occultation, as well as with the current...
We have reanalyzed the Voyager 1 UVS solar occultations by Titan to expand upon previous analyses and to resolve inconsistencies that have been noted in the scientific literature. To do so, we have developed a detailed model of the UVS detector and improved both the data reduction methods and retrieval techniques. In comparison to the values previously determined by Smith et al. (1982, J. Geophys...
The upcoming crossing of the Sun and the Earth through the equatorial plane of the planet Uranus presents an opportunity to observe mutual eclipses and occultations of the uranian satellites. We present predictions for 321 such events from 2006 to 2010. 230 of these events are “nominal” i.e. they are predicted to occur based on the currently available ephemeris while a further 91 “grazing” events...
The formation of CO 2 ice clouds in the upper atmosphere of Mars has been suggested in the past on the basis of a few temperature profiles exhibiting portions colder than CO 2 frost point. However, the corresponding clouds were never observed. In this paper, we discuss the detection of the highest clouds ever observed on Mars by the SPICAM ultraviolet spectrometer on board Mars Express...
Albedos for 57 asteroids were determined using diameters obtained from stellar occultations. For 18 objects, the occultation albedos were determined to accuracies better than 5%. The effect on the occultation albedo due to errors in the asteroid absolute magnitude is discussed and correlations between the occultation albedos and IRAS and polarimetric albedos are presented. The higher-quality occultation...
A long-term adaptive optics (AO) campaign of observing the double Asteroid (90) Antiope has been carried out in 2003–2005 using 8–10-m class telescopes, allowing prediction of the circumstances of mutual events occurring during the July 2005 opposition [Marchis, F., Descamps, P., Hestroffer, D., Berthier, J., de Pater, I., 2004. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 36, 1180]. This is the first opportunity to use...
Monte Carlo simulations are used to model the July 14, 2005 UVIS stellar occultation observations of the water vapor plumes on Enceladus. These simulations indicate that the observations can be best fit if the water molecules ejected along the Tiger Stripes in the South Polar region of Enceladus have a vertical surface velocity of 300–500 m/s at the surface. The high surface velocity suggests that...
We present a set of rotational lightcurve measurements of the small main belt Asteroid 3169 Ostro. Our observations reveal an unambiguous, double-peaked rotational lightcurve with a peak-to-peak variation up to 1.2±0.05 mag and a synodic period of 6.509±0.001 h. From the large flux variation and the overall shape of the lightcurves, we suggest that 3169 Ostro could be a tightly bound binary or a contact...
We observed a stellar occultation by Titan on 2003 November 14 from La Palma Observatory using ULTRACAM with three Sloan filters: u′, g′, and i′ (358, 487, and 758 nm, respectively). The occultation probed latitudes 2° S and 1° N during immersion and emersion, respectively. A prominent central flash was present in only the i′ filter, indicating wavelength-dependent atmospheric extinction. We inverted...
Cassini UVIS star occultations by the F ring detect 13 events ranging from 27 m to 9 km in width. We interpret these structures as likely temporary aggregations of multiple smaller objects, which result from the balance between fragmentation and accretion processes. One of these features was simultaneously observed by VIMS. There is evidence that this feature is elongated in azimuth. Some features...
The new ESA Venus Express orbiter is the first mission applying the probing technique of solar and stellar occultation to the atmosphere of Venus, with the SPICAV/SOIR instrument. SOIR is a new type of spectrometer used for solar occultations in the range 2.2–4.3 μm. Thanks to a high spectral resolving power R∼15,000–20,000 (unprecedented in planetary space exploration), a new gaseous absorption band...
On September 8, 2001 around 2 h UT, the largest uranian moon, Titania, occulted Hipparcos star 106829 (alias SAO 164538, a V=7.2, K0 III star). This was the first-ever observed occultation by this satellite, a rare event as Titania subtends only 0.11 arcsec on the sky. The star's unusual brightness allowed many observers, both amateurs or professionals, to monitor this unique event, providing fifty-seven...
We observed the 15 August 2007 occultation of the uranian satellite Titania and the 19 August 2007 occultation of Ariel by Umbriel using the Agile high-speed photometer on the APO 3.5 m telescope. We find that the Titania event midpoint occurred at 09:16:39.20 UT and the Ariel event midpoint at 07:59:49.4 UT, which was 26.2 s and 37.4 s later than predicted, respectively. Our best fit impact parameter...
Highly accurate astrometric positions obtained from eclipses and occultations of planetary satellites are reported. These measurements may be used to test existing ephemerides, to improve upon them, and to fit system constants such as satellite masses and planetary zonal harmonics. Eclipse and occultation photometry of 5 uranian satellite mutual events has resulted in precise astrometry for 3 of these...
A solar occultation by Titan's atmosphere has been observed through the solar port of the Cassini/VIMS instrument on January 15th, 2006. Transmission spectra acquired during solar egress probe the atmosphere in the altitude range 70 to 900 km at the latitude of 71° S. Several molecular absorption bands of CH 4 and CO are visible in these data. A line-by-line radiative transfer calculation...
We apply scintillation theory to stellar signal fluctuations in the high-resolution, high signal/noise, dual-wavelength data from the MMT observation of the 2007 March 18 occultation of P445.3 by Pluto. A well-defined high wavenumber cutoff in the fluctuations is consistent with viscous-thermal dissipation of buoyancy waves (internal gravity waves) in Pluto’s high atmosphere, and provides strong evidence...
Ground-based high angular-resolution images of asteroid (2) Pallas at near-infrared wavelengths have been used to determine its physical properties (shape, dimensions, spatial orientation and albedo distribution).We acquired and analyzed adaptive optics (AO) J/H/K-band observations from Keck II and the Very Large Telescope taken during four Pallas oppositions between 2003 and 2007, with spatial resolution...
We have completed a series of local N-body simulations of Saturn’s B and A rings in order to identify systematic differences in the degree of particle clumping into self-gravity wakes as a function of orbital distance from Saturn and dynamical optical depth (a function of surface density). These simulations revealed that the normal optical depth of the final configuration can be substantially lower...
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