Librations and obliquity of the largest moons of Uranus
Abstract
Following the discovery of several ocean worlds in the solar system, and the selection of Uranus as the highest priority objective by the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, the five largest moons of Uranus (Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon) have been receiving renewed attention as they may also harbor a subsurface ocean. We assess how rotation measurements could help confirm the internal differentiation of the bodies and detect internal oceans if any. Because of the time-varying gravitational torque of Uranus on the flattened shape of its synchronous satellites, the latter librate with respect to their mean rotation and precess with a non zero obliquity. For a range of interior models with a rocky core surrounded by a hydrosphere, either solid or divided into an outer ice shell with a liquid ocean underneath, we compute their diurnal libration amplitude and obliquity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2411.07788,
title = {Librations and obliquity of the largest moons of Uranus},
author = {Rose-Marie Baland and Valerio Filice and Sébastien Le Maistre and Antony Trinh and Marie Yseboodt and Tim Van Hoolst},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.07788},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Paper accepted for publication in Icarus