Triton's Distorted Atmosphere

Details Triton's Distorted Atmosphere Triton's Distorted Atmosphere

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7490e&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7490

Physics

Optics

Hst Proposal Id #7490 Solar System

Scientific paper

The asymmetry of a stellar-occultation light curve for Triton observed in 1995 can be readily explained if Triton's middle atmosphere is distorted from spherical symmetry. The data require only a portion of the atmosphere near the northern or southern limbs to be flattened, but a global oblate model has an atmospheric flattening of 0.027 +/- 0.005, with a symmetry axis consistent with Triton's rotation axis. This large flattening would be totally unexpected from Triton's slow rotation {5.877 day period}, but might be explained by a combination of high zonal winds {less than the sonic velocity, 140 m s^-1} and gravitational anomalies. Such winds would be consistent with the observed thermal structure, which is consistent with an adiabatic profile. More information about the figure of Triton's atmosphere can be learned by modeling the atmospheric figure with the six occultation chords, but three correspond to one component of the double star, Tr148A, and three to the other component, Tr148B. Hence current solutions use their separation and position angle as a free parameters. An accurate, independent measurement of the relative position of the two stars is necessary to use these data to establish Triton's atmospheric figure. The HST is essential for this double-star measurement because the double is too difficult for ground-based techniques of interferometry and active optics.

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