Photometry Of Saturn's Moon Iapetus From 0.5 To 5.0 Microns With Multiple Cassini Instruments

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) provide an unprecedented combination of spatial and spectral resolution to advance our understanding of photometric and physical properties of satellites’ surfaces. These properties include the surface compaction state, spatially resolved macroscopic roughness, and the bolometric Bond albedo. Images and spectra from the close untargeted flyby of Iapetus on Dec. 31, 2004 and various untargeted flybys during the nominal mission have been analyzed and modeled. A full-disk opposition solar phase curve of Iapetus obtained between 0.8 and 3.6 microns shows that there is little wavelength dependence to the curve at phase angles greater than 1.0 degree. At very small solar phase angles (<0.2 degree), which have never been observed before, Iapetus exhibits a remarkable surge, similar to that recently observed for Triton (Buratti et al., 2006, AGU Joint Assembly abstract P33A-02). This surge has a wavelength dependence such that the amplitude is larger when the albedo is larger, suggesting a multiple scattering effect such as coherent backscatter. Using physical photometric models to quantify the size of rough facets on the high and low albedo hemispheres provides a way to estimate the depth of the low-albedo deposit on the leading side of the moon.
Work performed under contract to NASA.

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