Related papers: The gravity field and interior structure of Dione
Jupiter's gravity field observed by NASA's Juno spacecraft indicates that the density in the 10--100 GPa region is lower than one would expect from a H/He adiabat with 0.5-5x solar water abundance as has been observationally inferred in…
We fit an isothermal oscillatory density model of Saturn's protoplanetary disk to the present-day major satellites and innermost rings D/C and we determine the radial scale length of the disk, the equation of state and the central density…
The Nice model of the dynamical instability and migration of the giant planets can explain many properties of the present Solar System, and can be used to constrain its early architecture. In the jumping-Jupiter version of the Nice model,…
Observations of Jupiter's gravity field by Juno have revealed surprisingly small values for the high order gravitational moments, considering the abundances of heavy elements measured by Galileo 20 years ago. The derivation of recent…
The moment of inertia of a giant planet reveals important information about the planet's internal density structure and this information is not identical to that contained in the gravitational moments. The forthcoming Juno mission to…
The alignment of Saturn's magnetic pole with its rotation axis precludes the use of magnetic field measurements to determine its rotation period. The period was previously determined from radio measurements by the Voyager spacecraft to be…
How deep do Saturn's zonal winds penetrate below the cloud-level has been a decades-long question, with important implications not only for the atmospheric dynamics, but also for the interior density structure, composition, magnetic field…
One of the most accurate models currently used to represent the gravity field of irregular bodies is the polyhedral approach. In this model, the mass of the body is assumed to be homogeneous, which may not be true for a real object. The…
From recently-acquired, high-resolution images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft, we examine the patterns and spatial distributions of rayed craters on Dione. We identify 29 rayed craters with diameters larger than 2km on Dione's surface.…
New equations of state (EOS) for hydrogen, helium, and compounds containing heavier elements are used to construct models for the structures of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Good agreement with the gravitational moments J2 and J4 is…
Solar system observations have traditionally allowed for very stringent tests of Einstein's theory of general relativity. We here revisit the possibility of using these observations to constrain gravitational parity violation as…
Saturn's magnetospheric magnetic field, planetary radio emissions, plasma populations and magnetospheric structure are all known to be modulated at periods close to the assumed rotation period of the planetary interior. These oscillations…
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…
By comparing the observed orbital decay of the binary pulsars PSRB1913+16 and PSRB1534+12 to that predicted by general relativity due to gravitational-wave emission, we are able to bound the mass of the graviton to be less than…
Context. The Juno spacecraft has obtained highly accurate tidal Love numbers, which provide important constraints on the tidal response and interior structure of Jupiter. Aims. In order to exploit these observations, it is necessary to…
All anomalous velocity increases until now observed during the Earth flybys of the spacecrafts Galileo, NEAR, Rosetta, Cassini and Messenger have been correctly calculated by computer simulation using an asymmetric field term in addition to…
Precision radial velocity (RV) measurements of the Sun-like dwarf 14 Herculis published by Naef et. al (2004), Butler et. al (2006) and Wittenmyer et al (2007) reveal a Jovian planet in a 1760 day orbit and a trend indicating the second…
During the thirteen years in orbit around Saturn before its final plunge, the Cassini spacecraft provided more than ten thousand astrometric measurements. Such large amounts of accurate data enable the search for extremely faint signals in…
We measure the mid-plane of the main asteroid belt by using the observational data of a nearly complete and unbiased sample of asteroids, and find that it has inclination $\bar{I}=0.93\pm0.04$ degrees and longitude of ascending node…
Seismology applied to giant planets could drastically change our understanding of their deep interiors, as it has happened with the Earth, the Sun, and many main-sequence and evolved stars. The study of giant planets' composition is…