A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons

Details A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons

Jul 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dda....38.1207s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #38, #12.07

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

New Horizons passed Jupiter on February 28, 2007, en route to its Pluto encounter in 2015. During the flyby, the spacecraft made extensive observations of Jovian system. We will discuss preliminary conclusions from the 300 ring images obtained by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). This camera has a broad bandpass spanning wavelengths λ = 0.35 to 0.85 μm. The ring was imaged at phase angles α = 7∘ to 159°. In addition, one sequence of near-IR spectra (λ = 1.25 to 2.5 μm) was obtained by the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA).
Primary science goals were as follows. (1) A comprenhensive search for embedded moons as small as 1 km, to better characterize the sources of the prevalent dust. This was accomplished via two complete rotation movies during approach. (2) Acquisition of a radially-resolved phase curve. Because μ-sized dust forward-scatters but the parent bodies backscatter, changes in the radial profile with α will allow us to decouple the locations and properties of each population. (3) Better characterization of the mysterious asymmetries, "patchiness" and "ripples" noted in some Voyager and Galileo images. This entailed duplicated observations and "movies" of the system. (4) Studies of the vertical distribution of dust in the inner "halo" and outer "gossamer" rings. These observations occurred during the high-phase viewing opportunities late in the encounter, including edge-on observations when New Horizons crossed the ring plane at α = 140°.
To date, only a fraction of the data set has been downlinked. Nevertheless, the images obtained so far are of extremely high quality. Metis and Adrastea are extremely bright in the approach phase movies, suggesting that our goal of detecting much smaller embedded moons is achievable. However, some of the long-exposure halo and gossamer ring images may have been lost due to saturation.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A New Look at Jupiter's Ring System: Preliminary Results from New Horizons will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1662648