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Related papers: Titan's variable ionosphere during the T118-T119 C…

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We constructed a 6-degrees of freedom rotational model of Titan as a 3-layer body consisting of a rigid core, a fluid global ocean, and a floating ice shell. The ice shell exhibits partially-compensated lateral thickness variations in order…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2014-03-11 Benoit Noyelles , Francis Nimmo

The Cassini mission offered us the opportunity to monitor the seasonal evolution of Titan's atmosphere from 2004 to 2017, i.e. half a Titan year. The lower part of the stratosphere (pressures greater than 10 mbar) is a region of particular…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-06-24 M. Sylvestre , N. A. Teanby , J. Vatant d'Ollone , S. Vinatier , B. Bézard , S. Lebonnois , P. G. J. Irwin

I report the results of a new set of calculations for the gravitational contraction of the proto-solar cloud to quantify the idea that Titan may be a captured moon of Saturn (Prentice 1981, 1984). It is proposed that Titan initially…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. J. R. Prentice

In this chapter we describe the remote sensing measurement of nitrogen-bearing species in Titan's atmosphere by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini spacecraft. This instrument, which detects the thermal infrared…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2013-03-14 Conor A. Nixon , Nicholas A. Teanby , Carrie M. Anderson , Sandrine Vinatier

Saturn's moon Titan possesses stratospheric zonal winds that places it among a sparse class of planetary bodies known to have superrotation in their atmospheres. Few measurements have been made of these speeds in the upper stratosphere,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-04-16 Siobhan Light , Mark Gurwell , Alexander Thelen , Nicholas Lombardo , Conor Nixon

The organic haze produced from complex CH4/N2 chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan plays an important role in processes that occur in the atmosphere and on its surface. The haze particles act as condensation nuclei and are therefore…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2013-05-27 Sarah M. Horst , Margaret A. Tolbert

Submillimeter emission lines of carbon monoxide (CO) in Titan's atmosphere provide excellent probes of atmospheric temperature due to the molecule's long chemical lifetime and stable, well constrained volume mixing ratio. Here we present…

Titan is one of the primary scientific objectives of the NASA ESA ASI Cassini Huygens mission. Scattering by haze particles in Titan's atmosphere and numerous methane absorptions dramatically veil Titan's surface in the visible range,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2009-07-17 S. Rodriguez , S. Le Mouélic , C. Sotin , H. Clénet , R. N. Clark , B. Buratti , R. H. Brown , T. B. Mccord , P. D. Nicholson , K. H. Baines

A surprising and unexpected phenomenon observed during Cassini's Grand Finale was the spacecraft charging to positive potentials in Saturn's ionosphere. Here, the ionospheric plasma was depleted of free electrons with negatively charged…

Space Physics · Physics 2021-03-16 Zeqi Zhang , Ravindra T. Desai , Yohei Miyake , Hideyuki Usui , Oleg Shebanits

A planet's Lyman-{\alpha} (Ly{\alpha}) emission is sensitive to its thermospheric structure. Here, we report joint Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Cassini cross-calibration observations of the Saturn Ly{\alpha} emission made two weeks…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-11-27 Lotfi Ben-Jaffel , Julie Moses , Robert A. West , M-K. aye , Eric T. Bradley , John T. Clarke , Jay B. Holber , Gilda E. Ballester

The detection of O2+ and O+ ions over Saturn's main rings by the Cassini INMS and CAPS instruments at Saturn orbit insertion (SOI) in 2004 confirmed the existence of the ring atmosphere and ionosphere. The source mechanism was suggested to…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 W. -L. Tseng , R. E. Johnson , M. K. Elrod

Saturn's diffuse E ring consists of many tiny (micron and sub-micron) grains of water ice distributed between the orbits of Mimas and Titan. Various gravitational and non-gravitational forces perturb these particles' orbits, causing the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 M. M. Hedman , J. A. Burns , D. P. Hamilton , M. R. Showalter

Shematovich et al. (2003) recently showed plasma induced sputtering in Titan's atmosphere is a source of neutral nitrogen in Saturn's magnetosphere comparable to the photo-dissociation source. These sources form a toroidal nitrogen cloud…

Space Physics · Physics 2015-06-26 H. T. Smith , R. E. Johnson , V. I. Shematovich

The Voyager flyby observations revealed that a very broad doughnut shaped distribution of the hydrogen atoms existed in the Saturnian magnetosphere. Recent Cassini observations confirmed the local-time asymmetry but also showed the hydrogen…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 W. -L. Tseng , R. E. Johnson , W. -H. Ip

Thanks to the Cassini Huygens mission, it is now established that the first aerosols in Titan s upper atmosphere are found from an altitude of about 1200 km. Once they are formed and through their descent towards the surface, these…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-03-26 Sarah Tigrine , Nathalie Carrasco , Dusan K. Bozanic , Gustavo A. Garcia , Laurent Nahon

Seasonal variation is significant in Titan's atmosphere due to the large change of solar insolation resulting from Titan's 26.7{\deg} axial tilt relative to the plane of Saturn's orbit. Here we present an investigation of hydrocarbon and…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-04-18 Siteng Fan , Daniel Zhao , Cheng Li , Donald E. Shemansky , Mao-Chang Liang , Yuk L. Yung

Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, transited the Crab Nebula on 5 January 2003. We observed this astronomical event with the {\it Chandra} X-ray Observatory. An ``occultation shadow'' has clearly been detected and is found to be larger than…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 K. Mori , H. Tsunemi , H. Katayama , D. N. Burrows , G. P. Garmire , A. E. Metzger

Winds in Titan's lower and middle atmosphere have been determined by a variety of techniques, including direct measurements from the Huygens Probe over 0-150 km, Doppler shifts of molecular spectral lines in the optical, thermal infrared…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-03-29 E. Lellouch , M. A. Gurwell , R. Moreno , S. Vinatier , D. F. Strobel , A. Moullet , B. Butler , L. Lara , T. Hidayat , E. Villard

The Cassini/Huygens mission provided new insights on the chemistry of the upper atmosphere of Titan. The presence of large molecules and ions (>100 s of amu) detected by Cassini at high altitude was not expected, and questions the original…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-07-19 Christophe Mathé , Thomas Gautier , Melissa G. Trainer , Nathalie Carrasco

During the Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter (October, 2000-March, 2001), the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) produced an extensive dataset consisting of 3,349 spectrally dispersed images of the Io plasma torus. Here we present…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2013-01-17 Andrew J. Steffl , A. Ian F. Stewart , Fran Bagenal