Resolving Dynamical Properties for Four 2007 Uranus Satellite Mutual Events

Details Resolving Dynamical Properties for Four 2007 Uranus Satellite Mutual Events Resolving Dynamical Properties for Four 2007 Uranus Satellite Mutual Events

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.4602m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #46.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.480

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Uranus reached equinox in December 2007, an event that occurs once every 42 years. The 2007 equinox provided an opportunity to observe a number of mutual satellite encounters - occultations and eclipses - as the equatorial plane of Uranus pointed at Earth. The mean orbital motions of the Uranian satellites, specifically their relative mean anomalies and relative velocities, dictate the precise midpoint timing of an occultation. Likewise, the relative orbital inclinations of the interacting satellites determine the impact parameter of each event, which affects the magnitude drop. Therefore, identifying the precise midpoint timing and magnitude drop of mutual satellite encounters provides a check on the ephemerides used to predict these mutual events, which in turn places constraints on the satellite orbital models used to derive the ephemerides. We observed four Uranus satellite mutual encounters - occultations of Titania and Ariel by Umbriel in August 2007, and eclipses of Ariel by Umbriel and of Umbriel by Ariel in December 2007. We observed all events using the Astrophysical Research Consortium's 3.5 meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, NM with the Agile high-speed time-series photometer and a Johnson I-band filter. We obtained light curves with a time resolution of 0.5 second for both occultations and 1.0 second for both eclipses. We fit data from simulated occultations and eclipses to our light curves to determine values for four free parameters - event midpoint, relative albedo, relative velocity, and impact parameter - and compared them to predicted values. We find that all four midpoints occurred later than predicted, with delays ranging from 21.2 to 37.6 seconds. We present our results and discuss our occultation and eclipse models. This study was funded through the NMSU 21st Space and Aerospace Research Cluster Graduate Fellowship.

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