Shapes of small satellites

Details Shapes of small satellites Shapes of small satellites

May 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987pggp.rept...35t&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program, 1986 p 35-36 (SEE N87-23341 16-91)

Physics

Geophysics

Gravitational Effects, Natural Satellites, Shapes, Tides, Statistical Distributions, Topography

Scientific paper

The accurate measurement of limb coordinates on small satellite is the major technique for evaluating their sizes and shapes in the absence of good stereoscopic image coverage. The shapes of satellites may be clues to their internal structure if they are relaxed into ellipsoids. The distinction between irregular and ellipsoidal satellites can now be made quantitatively with the availability of many accurate limb profiles of satellites. The residuals from these fit ellipses provide a convenient and quantitative measure of the topography on the satellites. Departures from gravitational (and tidal) equipotentials would be greater, but on the average this is a good measure of the relaxed or nonrelaxed nature of the shape of the objects. The limb topography is also related to specific forms on the objects, and a systematic survey of these forms on small and larger objects is underway.

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