The Orbits and Masses of the Galilean Satellites---Results from the Galileo Mission

Details The Orbits and Masses of the Galilean Satellites---Results from the Galileo Mission The Orbits and Masses of the Galilean Satellites---Results from the Galileo Mission

Sep 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998dda....30.1203j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #30, #12.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.1147

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The Galileo project ended its prime mission in November of 1997 with its 11'th successful close encounter with a Galilean satellite. Of the 11 encounters, 1 was with Io, 3 with Europa, 4 with Ganymede, and 3 with Callisto. The extended Galileo mission began in December of 1997 with a flyby of Europa at a 200 km altitude and will continue until November of 1999 with additional flybys of Io, Europa, and Callisto. The satellite ephemerides used to support the mission are developed from numerical integrations of the orbits which are fit to Earthbased astrometric observations, eclipses, mutual event observations, Voyager optical navigation observations, Galileo optical navigation observations, and Galileo spacecraft radiometric tracking data. The most recent of the ephemerides is estimated to be accurate to the 5 km level over the Galileo mission time frame, and it is expected that few if any corrections will be needed during the extended mission. Although the Galileo project works exclusively in the B1950 system, the ephemerides are produced separately in both the B1950 and J2000 systems. This paper briefly outlines the models, procedures, and data used to determine the satellite orbits. Necessary by-products of that determination include improved values for the masses, i.e., GM's of the Jovian system and encountered satellites. In units of km(3) s(-2) these values are (126712767+/-5) for the Jovian system, (5959.7+/-0.5) for Io, (3202.72+/-0.05) for Europa, (9887.86+/-0.05) for Ganymede, and (7179.25+/-0.05) for Callisto, based on data acquired through December 1997. The Galileo GM's are consistent with the ones determined by Voyager (Campbell and Synnott 1985 AJ 90, 365), but their uncertainties are significantly smaller. Ephemerides for the satellites are available electronically from the JPL Horizons on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service.

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