Sample records for observe planetary systems

  1. The diversity of planetary system architectures: contrasting theory with observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miguel, Y.; Guilera, O. M.; Brunini, A.

    2011-10-01

    In order to explain the observed diversity of planetary system architectures and relate this primordial diversity to the initial properties of the discs where they were born, we develop a semi-analytical model for computing planetary system formation. The model is based on the core instability model for the gas accretion of the embryos and the oligarchic growth regime for the accretion of the solid cores. Two regimes of planetary migration are also included. With this model, we consider different initial conditions based on recent results of protoplanetary disc observations to generate a variety of planetary systems. These systems are analysed statistically, exploring the importance of several factors that define the planetary system birth environment. We explore the relevance of the mass and size of the disc, metallicity, mass of the central star and time-scale of gaseous disc dissipation in defining the architecture of the planetary system. We also test different values of some key parameters of our model to find out which factors best reproduce the diverse sample of observed planetary systems. We assume different migration rates and initial disc profiles, in the context of a surface density profile motivated by similarity solutions. According to this, and based on recent protoplanetary disc observational data, we predict which systems are the most common in the solar neighbourhood. We intend to unveil whether our Solar system is a rarity or whether more planetary systems like our own are expected to be found in the near future. We also analyse which is the more favourable environment for the formation of habitable planets. Our results show that planetary systems with only terrestrial planets are the most common, being the only planetary systems formed when considering low-metallicity discs, which also represent the best environment for the development of rocky, potentially habitable planets. We also found that planetary systems like our own are not rare in the

  2. LBT observations of the HR8799 planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mesa, D.; Arcidiacono, C.; Claudi, R. U.; Desidera, S.; Esposito, S.; Gratton, R.; Masciadri, E.

    2013-09-01

    We present here observations of the HR8799 planetary system performed in H and Ks band exploiting the AO system at the Large Binocular Telescope and the PISCES camera. Thanks to the excellent performence of the instrument we were able to detect for the first time the inner known planet of the system (HR8799) in the H band. Precise photometric and astrometric measures have been taken for all the four planets. Further, exploiting ours and previous astrometric results, we were able to put some limits on the planetary orbits of the four planets. The analysis of the dinamical stability of the system seems to show lower planetary masses than the ones adopted until now.

  3. Observational Research on Star and Planetary System Formation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Simpson, Janet P.

    1998-01-01

    Institute scientists collaborate with a number of NASA Ames scientists on observational studies of star and planetary system formation to their mutual benefit. As part of this collaboration, SETI scientists have, from 1988 to the present: (1) contributed to the technical studies at NASA Ames of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an infrared 2.5 meter telescope in a Boeing 747, which will replace the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), a 0.9 meter telescope in a Lockheed C-141. SOFIA will be an important facility for the future exploration of the formation of stars and planetary systems, and the origins of life, and as such will be an important future facility to SETI scientists; (2) worked with the Laboratory Astrophysics Group at Ames, carrying out laboratory studies of the spectroscopic properties of ices and pre-biotic organics, which could be formed in the interstellar or interplanetary media; (3) helped develop a photometric approach for determining the Frequency of Earth-Sized Inner Planets (FRESIP) around solar-like stars, a project (now called Kepler) which complements the current efforts of the SETI Institute to find evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence; and (4) carried out independent observational research, in particular research on the formation of stars and planetary systems using both ground-based telescopes as well as the KAO.

  4. Observational Research on Star and Planetary System Formation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simpson, Janet P.

    1998-07-01

    Institute scientists collaborate with a number of NASA Ames scientists on observational studies of star and planetary system formation to their mutual benefit. As part of this collaboration, SETI scientists have, from 1988 to the present: (1) contributed to the technical studies at NASA Ames of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an infrared 2.5 meter telescope in a Boeing 747, which will replace the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), a 0.9 meter telescope in a Lockheed C-141. SOFIA will be an important facility for the future exploration of the formation of stars and planetary systems, and the origins of life, and as such will be an important future facility to SETI scientists; (2) worked with the Laboratory Astrophysics Group at Ames, carrying out laboratory studies of the spectroscopic properties of ices and pre-biotic organics, which could be formed in the interstellar or interplanetary media; (3) helped develop a photometric approach for determining the Frequency of Earth-Sized Inner Planets (FRESIP) around solar-like stars, a project (now called Kepler) which complements the current efforts of the SETI Institute to find evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence; and (4) carried out independent observational research, in particular research on the formation of stars and planetary systems using both ground-based telescopes as well as the KAO.

  5. The Jupiter System Observer: Probing the Foundations of Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Senske, D.; Prockter, L.; Collins, G.; Cooper, J.; Hendrix, A.; Hibbitts, K.; Kivelson, M.; Orton, G.; Schubert, G.; Showman, A.; Turtle, E.; Williams, D.; Kwok, J.; Spilker, T.; Tan-Wang, G.

    2007-12-01

    Galileo's observations in the 1600's of the dynamic system of Jupiter and its moons launched a revolution in understanding the way planetary systems operate. Now, some 400 years later, the discovery of extra solar planetary systems with Jupiter-sized bodies has led to a similar revolution in thought regarding how these systems form and evolve. From the time of Galileo, the Jovian system has been viewed as a solar system in miniature, providing a laboratory to study, diverse and dynamic processes in a single place. The icy Galilean satellites provide a window into solar system history by preserving in their cratering records a chronology dating back nearly 4.5 By and extending to the present. The continuously erupting volcanoes of Io may provide insight into the era when magma oceans were common. The discovery of an internally generated magnetic field at Ganymede, one of only three terrestrial bodies to possess such a field, is a place to gain insight as to how dynamos work. The confirmation and characterization of icy satellite subsurface oceans impacts the way habitability is considered. Understanding the composition and volatile inventory of Jupiter can shed light into how planets accrete from the solar nebulae. Finally, like our sun, Jupiter influences its system through its extensive magnetic field. In early 2007, NASA's Science Mission Directorate formed four Science Definition Teams (SDTs) to formulate science goals and objectives in anticipation of the initiation of a flagship-class mission to the outer solar system (Europa, Jupiter system, Titan and Enceladus). The Jupiter System Observer (JSO) mission concept emphasizes overall Jupiter system science: 1) Jupiter and its atmosphere, 2) the geology and geophysics of the Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), 3) the magnetosphere environment - both Jupiter's and Ganymede's&pand 4) interactions within the system. Focusing on the unique geology, presence of an internal magnetic field and

  6. Observational studies of the clearing phase in proto-planetary disk systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grady, Carol A.

    1994-01-01

    A summary of the work completed during the first year of a 5 year program to observationally study the clearing phase of proto-planetary disks is presented. Analysis of archival and current IUE data, together with supporting optical observations has resulted in the identification of 6 new proto-planetary disk systems associated with Herbig Ae/Be stars, the evolutionary precursors of the beta Pictoris system. These systems exhibit large amplitude light and optical color variations which enable us to identify additional systems which are viewed through their circumstellar disks including a number of classical T Tauri stars. On-going IUE observations of Herbig Ae/Be and T Tauri stars with this orientation have enabled us to detect bipolar emission plausibly associated with disk winds. Preliminary circumstellar extinction studies were completed for one star, UX Ori. Intercomparison of the available sample of edge-on systems, with stars ranging from 1-6 solar masses, suggests that the signatures of accreting gas, disk winds, and bipolar flows and the prominence of a dust-scattered light contribution to the integrated light of the system decreases with decreasing IR excess.

  7. Extrasolar planetary systems.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Huang, S.-S.

    1973-01-01

    The terms 'planet' and 'planet-like objects' are defined. The observational search for extrasolar planetary systems is described, as performable by earthbound optical telescopes, by space probes, by long baseline radio interferometry, and finally by inference from the reception of signals sent by intelligent beings in other worlds. It is shown that any planetary system must be preceded by a rotating disk of gas and dust around a central mass. A brief review of the theories of the formation of the solar system is given, along with a proposed scheme for classification of these theories. The evidence for magnetic activity in the early stages of stellar evolution is presented. The magnetic braking theories of solar and stellar rotation are discussed, and an estimate is made for the frequency of occurrence of planetary systems in the universe.

  8. JWST Planetary Observations Within the Solar System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lunine, Jonathan; Hammel, Heidi; Schaller, Emily; Sonneborn, George; Orton, Glenn; Rieke, George; Rieke, Marcia

    2010-01-01

    JWST provides capabilities unmatched by other telescopic facilities in the near to mid infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Its combination of broad wavelength range, high sensitivity and near diffraction-limited imaging around two microns wavelength make it a high value facility for a variety of Solar System targets. Beyond Neptune, a class of cold, large bodies that include Pluto, Triton and Eris exhibits surface deposits of nitrogen, methane, and other molecules that are poorly observed from the ground, but for which JWST might provide spectral mapping at high sensitivity and spatial resolution difficult to match with the current generation of ground-based observatories. The observatory will also provide unique sensitivity in a variety of near and mid infrared windows for observing relatively deep into the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, searching there for minor species. It will examine the Jovian aurora in a wavelength regime where the background atmosphere is dark. Special provision of a subarray observing strategy may allow observation of Jupiter and Saturn over a larger wavelength range despite their large surface brightnesses, allowing for detailed observation of transient phenomena including large scale storms and impact-generation disturbances. JWST's observations of Saturn's moon Titan will overlap with and go beyond the 2017 end-of-mission for Cassini, providing an important extension to the time-series of meteorological studies for much of northern hemisphere summer. It will overlap with a number of other planetary missions to targets for which JWST can make unique types of observations. JWST provides a platform for linking solar system and extrasolar planet studies through its unique observational capabilities in both arenas.

  9. Ordinary planetary systems - Architecture and formation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Levy, E. H.

    1993-01-01

    Today we believe ordinary planetary systems to be an unremarkable consequence of star formation. The solar system, so far the only confidently known example in the universe of a planetary system, displays a set of striking structural regularities. These structural regularities provide fossil clues about the conditions and mechanisms that gave rise to the planets. The formation of our planetary system, as well as its general characteristics, resulted from the physical environment in the disk-shaped nebula that accompanied the birth of the sun. Observations of contemporary star formation indicate that the very conditions and mechanisms thought to have produced our own planetary system are widely associated with the birth of stars elsewhere. Consequently, it is reasonable to believe that planetary systems occur commonly, at least in association with single, sunlike stars. Moreover, it is reasonable to believe that many planetary systems have gross characteristics resembling those of our own solar system.

  10. The Birth of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.

    1997-01-01

    Models of planet formation and of the orbital stability of planetary systems are described and used to discuss possible characteristics of undiscovered planetary systems. Modern theories of star and planet formation, which are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments, predict that rocky planets should form in orbit about most single stars. It is uncertain whether or not gas giant planet formation is common, because most protoplanetary disks may dissipate before solid planetary cores can grow large- enough to gravitationally trap substantial quantities of gas. Another potential hazard to planetary systems is radial decay of planetary orbits resulting from interactions with material within the disk. Planets more massive than Earth have the potential to decay the fastest, and may be able to sweep up smaller planets in their path. The implications of the giant planets found in recent radial velocity searches for the abundances of habitable planets are discussed.

  11. Variety in planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wetherill, George W.

    1993-01-01

    Observation of circumstellar disks, regular satellite systems of outer planets, and planet-size objects orbiting pulsars support the supposition that formation of planetary systems is a robust, rather than a fragile, byproduct of the formation and evolution of stars. The extent to which these systems may be expected to resemble one another and our Solar System, either in overall structure or in detail remains uncertain. When the full range of possible stellar masses, disk masses, and initial specific angular momenta are considered, the possible variety of planetary configurations is very large. Numerical modeling indicates a difference between the formation of small, inner, terrestrial planets and the outer planets.

  12. NIRCam Coronagraphic Observations of Disks and Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beichman, Charles A.; Ygouf, Marie; Gaspar, Andras; NIRCam Science Team

    2017-06-01

    The NIRCam coronagraph offers a dramatic increase in sensitivity at wavelengths of 3-5 um where young planets are brightest. While large ground-based telescopes with Extreme Adaptive Optics have an advantage in inner working angle, NIRCam's sensitivity will allow high precision photometry for known planets and searches for planets with masses below that of Saturn. For debris disk science NIRCam observations will address the scattering properties of dust, look for evidence of ices and tholins, and search for planets which affect the structure of the disk itself.The NIRCam team's GTO program includes medium-band filter observations of known young planets having 1-5 Jupiter masses. A collaborative program with the MIRI team will provide coronagraphic observations at longer wavelengths. The combined dataset will yield the exoplanet’s total luminosity and effective temperature, an estimate of the initial entropy of the newly-formed planet, and the retrieval of atmospheric properties.The program will also make deep searches for lower mass planets toward known planetary systems, nearby young M stars and debris disk systems. Achievable mass limits range from ~1 Jupiter mass beyond 20 AU for the brightest A stars to perhaps a Uranus mass within 10 AU for the closest M stars.We will discuss details of the coronagraphic program for both the exoplanet and debris disk cases with an emphasis on using APT to optimize the observations of target and reference stars.

  13. On the Diversity of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Young, Richard E. (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    Models of planet formation and of the orbital stability of planetary systems are described and used to discuss possible characteristics of undiscovered planetary systems. Modern theories of star and planet formation, which are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments, predict that rocky planets should form in orbit about most single stars. It is uncertain whether or not gas giant planet formation is common, because most protoplanetary disks may dissipate before solid planetary cores can grow large enough to gravitationally trap substantial quantities of gas. A potential hazard to planetary systems is radial decay of planetary orbits resulting from interactions with material within the disk. Planets more massive than Earth have the potential to decay the fastest, and may be able to sweep up smaller planets in their path. The implications of the giant planets found in recent radial velocity searches for the abundances of habitable planets are discussed.

  14. Planetary Ringmoon Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cuzzi, J. N.; Morrison, David (Technical Monitor)

    1994-01-01

    The last decade has seen an avalanche of observations of planetary ring systems, both from spacecraft and from Earth. Much of the structure revealed was thoroughly puzzling and fired the imagination of workers in a variety of disciplines. Consequently, we have also seen steady progress in our understanding of these systems as our intuitions (and our computers) catch up with the myriad ways in which gravity, fluid and statistical mechanics, and electromagnetism can combine to shape the distribution of the submicron to-several-meter size particles which comprise ring systems (refs 1-5). The now-complete reconnaissance of the gas giant planets by spacecraft has revealed that ring systems and families of regular satellites are invariably found together, and there is an emerging perspective that they are not only physically but causally linked. There is also mounting evidence that many features or aspects of all planetary ring systems, if not the ring systems themselves, are considerably younger than the solar system.

  15. Stratospheric Balloons for Planetary Science and the Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) Mission Summary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kremic, Tibor; Cheng, Andrew F.; Hibbitts, Karl; Young, Eliot F.; Ansari, Rafat R.; Dolloff, Matthew D.; Landis, Rob R.

    2015-01-01

    NASA and the planetary science community have been exploring the potential contributions approximately 200 questions raised in the Decadal Survey have identified about 45 topics that are potentially suitable for addressing by stratospheric balloon platforms. A stratospheric balloon mission was flown in the fall of 2014 called BOPPS, Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science. This mission observed a number of planetary targets including two Oort cloud comets. The optical system and instrumentation payload was able to provide unique measurements of the intended targets and increase our understanding of these primitive bodies and their implications for us here on Earth. This paper will discuss the mission, instrumentation and initial results and how these may contribute to the broader planetary science objectives of NASA and the scientific community. This paper will also identify how the instrument platform on BOPPS may be able to contribute to future balloon-based science. Finally the paper will address potential future enhancements and the expected science impacts should those enhancements be implemented.

  16. Post-main-sequence planetary system evolution

    PubMed Central

    Veras, Dimitri

    2016-01-01

    The fates of planetary systems provide unassailable insights into their formation and represent rich cross-disciplinary dynamical laboratories. Mounting observations of post-main-sequence planetary systems necessitate a complementary level of theoretical scrutiny. Here, I review the diverse dynamical processes which affect planets, asteroids, comets and pebbles as their parent stars evolve into giant branch, white dwarf and neutron stars. This reference provides a foundation for the interpretation and modelling of currently known systems and upcoming discoveries. PMID:26998326

  17. Post-main-sequence planetary system evolution.

    PubMed

    Veras, Dimitri

    2016-02-01

    The fates of planetary systems provide unassailable insights into their formation and represent rich cross-disciplinary dynamical laboratories. Mounting observations of post-main-sequence planetary systems necessitate a complementary level of theoretical scrutiny. Here, I review the diverse dynamical processes which affect planets, asteroids, comets and pebbles as their parent stars evolve into giant branch, white dwarf and neutron stars. This reference provides a foundation for the interpretation and modelling of currently known systems and upcoming discoveries.

  18. Formation and Detection of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

    1999-01-01

    Modern theories of star and planet formation and of the orbital stability of planetary systems are described and used to discuss possible characteristics of undiscovered planetary systems. The most detailed models of planetary growth are based upon observations of planets and smaller bodies within our own Solar System and of young stars and their environments. Terrestrial planets are believed to grow via pairwise accretion until the spacing of planetary orbits becomes large enough that the configuration is stable for the age of the system. Giant planets begin their growth as do terrestrial planets, but they become massive enough that they are able to accumulate substantial amounts of gas before the protoplanetary disk dissipates. These models predict that rocky planets should form in orbit about most single stars. It is uncertain whether or not gas giant planet formation is common, because most protoplanetary disks may dissipate before solid planetary cores can grow large enough to gravitationally trap substantial quantities of gas. A potential hazard to planetary systems is radial decay of planetary orbits resulting from interactions with material within the disk. Planets more massive than Earth have the potential to decay the fastest, and may be able to sweep up smaller planets in their path. The implications of the giant planets found in recent radial velocity searches for the abundances of habitable planets are discussed, and the methods that are being used and planned for detecting and characterizing extrasolar planets are reviewed.

  19. The signatures of the parental cluster on field planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cai, Maxwell Xu; Portegies Zwart, Simon; van Elteren, Arjen

    2018-03-01

    Due to the high stellar densities in young clusters, planetary systems formed in these environments are likely to have experienced perturbations from encounters with other stars. We carry out direct N-body simulations of multiplanet systems in star clusters to study the combined effects of stellar encounters and internal planetary dynamics. These planetary systems eventually become part of the Galactic field population as the parental cluster dissolves, which is where most presently known exoplanets are observed. We show that perturbations induced by stellar encounters lead to distinct signatures in the field planetary systems, most prominently, the excited orbital inclinations and eccentricities. Planetary systems that form within the cluster's half-mass radius are more prone to such perturbations. The orbital elements are most strongly excited in the outermost orbit, but the effect propagates to the entire planetary system through secular evolution. Planet ejections may occur long after a stellar encounter. The surviving planets in these reduced systems tend to have, on average, higher inclinations and larger eccentricities compared to systems that were perturbed less strongly. As soon as the parental star cluster dissolves, external perturbations stop affecting the escaped planetary systems, and further evolution proceeds on a relaxation time-scale. The outer regions of these ejected planetary systems tend to relax so slowly that their state carries the memory of their last strong encounter in the star cluster. Regardless of the stellar density, we observe a robust anticorrelation between multiplicity and mean inclination/eccentricity. We speculate that the `Kepler dichotomy' observed in field planetary systems is a natural consequence of their early evolution in the parental cluster.

  20. Planetary mass function and planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dominik, M.

    2011-02-01

    With planets orbiting stars, a planetary mass function should not be seen as a low-mass extension of the stellar mass function, but a proper formalism needs to take care of the fact that the statistical properties of planet populations are linked to the properties of their respective host stars. This can be accounted for by describing planet populations by means of a differential planetary mass-radius-orbit function, which together with the fraction of stars with given properties that are orbited by planets and the stellar mass function allows the derivation of all statistics for any considered sample. These fundamental functions provide a framework for comparing statistics that result from different observing techniques and campaigns which all have their very specific selection procedures and detection efficiencies. Moreover, recent results both from gravitational microlensing campaigns and radial-velocity surveys of stars indicate that planets tend to cluster in systems rather than being the lonely child of their respective parent star. While planetary multiplicity in an observed system becomes obvious with the detection of several planets, its quantitative assessment however comes with the challenge to exclude the presence of further planets. Current exoplanet samples begin to give us first hints at the population statistics, whereas pictures of planet parameter space in its full complexity call for samples that are 2-4 orders of magnitude larger. In order to derive meaningful statistics, however, planet detection campaigns need to be designed in such a way that well-defined fully deterministic target selection, monitoring and detection criteria are applied. The probabilistic nature of gravitational microlensing makes this technique an illustrative example of all the encountered challenges and uncertainties.

  1. Migration-induced architectures of planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Szuszkiewicz, Ewa; Podlewska-Gaca, Edyta

    2012-06-01

    The recent increase in number of known multi-planet systems gives a unique opportunity to study the processes responsible for planetary formation and evolution. Special attention is given to the occurrence of mean-motion resonances, because they carry important information about the history of the planetary systems. At the early stages of the evolution, when planets are still embedded in a gaseous disc, the tidal interactions between the disc and planets cause the planetary orbital migration. The convergent differential migration of two planets embedded in a gaseous disc may result in the capture into a mean-motion resonance. The orbital migration taking place during the early phases of the planetary system formation may play an important role in shaping stable planetary configurations. An understanding of this stage of the evolution will provide insight on the most frequently formed architectures, which in turn are relevant for determining the planet habitability. The aim of this paper is to present the observational properties of these planetary systems which contain confirmed or suspected resonant configurations. A complete list of known systems with such configurations is given. This list will be kept by us updated from now on and it will be a valuable reference for studying the dynamics of extrasolar systems and testing theoretical predictions concerned with the origin and the evolution of planets, which are the most plausible places for existence and development of life.

  2. Observability during planetary approach navigation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bishop, Robert H.; Burkhart, P. Daniel; Thurman, Sam W.

    1993-01-01

    The objective of the research is to develop an analytic technique to predict the relative navigation capability of different Earth-based radio navigation measurements. In particular, the problem is to determine the relative ability of geocentric range and Doppler measurements to detect the effects of the target planet gravitational attraction on the spacecraft during the planetary approach and near-encounter mission phases. A complete solution to the two-dimensional problem has been developed. Relatively simple analytic formulas are obtained for range and Doppler measurements which describe the observability content of the measurement data along the approach trajectories. An observability measure is defined which is based on the observability matrix for nonlinear systems. The results show good agreement between the analytic observability analysis and the computational batch processing method.

  3. Theory of Planetary System Formation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cassen, Patrick

    1996-01-01

    Observations and theoretical considerations support the idea that the Solar System formed by the collapse of tenuous interstellar matter to a disk of gas and dust (the primitive solar nebula), from which the Sun and other components separated under the action of dissipative forces and by the coagulation of solid material. Thus, planets are understood to be contemporaneous byproducts of star formation. Because the circumstellar disks of new stars are easier to observe than mature planetary systems, the possibility arises that the nature and variety of planets might be studied from observations of the conditions of their birth. A useful theory of planetary system formation would therefore relate the properties of circumstellar disks both to the initial conditions of star formation and to the consequent properties of planets to those of the disk. Although the broad outlines of such a theory are in place, many aspects are either untested, controversial, or otherwise unresolved; even the degree to which such a comprehensive theory is possible remains unknown.

  4. Europlanet/IDIS: Combining Diverse Planetary Observations and Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Walter; Capria, Maria Teresa; Chanteur, Gerard

    2013-04-01

    Planetary research involves a diversity of research fields from astrophysics and plasma physics to atmospheric physics, climatology, spectroscopy and surface imaging. Data from all these disciplines are collected from various space-borne platforms or telescopes, supported by modelling teams and laboratory work. In order to interpret one set of data often supporting data from different disciplines and other missions are needed while the scientist does not always have the detailed expertise to access and utilize these observations. The Integrated and Distributed Information System (IDIS) [1], developed in the framework of the Europlanet-RI project, implements a Virtual Observatory approach ([2] and [3]), where different data sets, stored in archives around the world and in different formats, are accessed, re-formatted and combined to meet the user's requirements without the need of familiarizing oneself with the different technical details. While observational astrophysical data from different observatories could already earlier be accessed via Virtual Observatories, this concept is now extended to diverse planetary data and related model data sets, spectral data bases etc. A dedicated XML-based Europlanet Data Model (EPN-DM) [4] was developed based on data models from the planetary science community and the Virtual Observatory approach. A dedicated editor simplifies the registration of new resources. As the EPN-DM is a super-set of existing data models existing archives as well as new spectroscopic or chemical data bases for the interpretation of atmospheric or surface observations, or even modeling facilities at research institutes in Europe or Russia can be easily integrated and accessed via a Table Access Protocol (EPN-TAP) [5] adapted from the corresponding protocol of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance [6] (IVOA-TAP). EPN-TAP allows to search catalogues, retrieve data and make them available through standard IVOA tools if the access to the archive

  5. The final fate of planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gaensicke, Boris

    2015-12-01

    The discovery of the first extra-solar planet around a main-sequence star in 1995 has changed the way we think about the Universe: our solar system is not unique. Twenty years later, we know that planetary systems are ubiquitous, orbit stars spanning a wide range in mass, and form in an astonishing variety of architectures. Yet, one fascinating aspect of planetary systems has received relatively little attention so far: their ultimate fate.Most planet hosts will eventually evolve into white dwarfs, Earth-sized stellar embers, and the outer parts of their planetary systems (in the solar system, Mars and beyond) can survive largely intact for billions of years. While scattered and tidally disrupted planetesimals are directly detected at a small number of white dwarfs in the form infrared excess, the most powerful probe for detecting evolved planetary systems is metal pollution of the otherwise pristine H/He atmospheres.I will present the results of a multi-cycle HST survey that has obtained COS observations of 136 white dwarfs. These ultraviolet spectra are exquisitely sensitive to the presence of metals contaminating the white atmosphere. Our sophisticated model atmosphere analysis demonstrates that at least 27% of all targets are currently accreting planetary debris, and an additional 29% have very likely done so in the past. These numbers suggest that planet formation around A-stars (the dominant progenitors of today's white dwarf population) is similarly efficient as around FGK stars.In addition to post-main sequence planetary system demographics, spectroscopy of the debris-polluted white dwarf atmospheres provides a direct window into the bulk composition of exo-planetesimals, analogous to the way we use of meteorites to determine solar-system abundances. Our ultraviolet spectroscopy is particularly sensitive to the detection of Si, a dominant rock-forming species, and we identify up to ten additional volatile and refractory elements in the most strongly

  6. Planetary system formation: Effects of planet-disk tidal interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bryden, Geoffrey

    The standard theory of planet formation begins with the coagulation of solid planetesimals (Safronov 1969, Wetherill & Stewart 1989) followed by the accretion of disk gas once the solid core reaches a critical mass >~10M⊕ (Perri & Cameron 1974, Mizuno 1980, Bodenheimer & Pollack 1986). The classic picture of planet formation, in which each planet's position in the nebula remain fixed, is challenged by the observed distribution of extra-solar planets (e.g. Mayor & Queloz 1995, Butler et al. 1999). The majority of these planets are on short-period orbits ( P<~10 days) very close to their central stars ( ap<~0.1 AU), suggesting that orbital migration plays an important role in the formation of planetary systems. The intent of this thesis is to explore the inclusion of protoplanetary tidal forces into the classical theory of planetary system formation. Protoplanetary interaction with the surrounding gaseous nebulae directly determines giant planets' semi-major axes, masses, gas/solid ratio, and relative spacing. In essence, the process of gap formation determines the primary observational characteristics of both individual planets and their composite systems. Detailed simulations of gap formation produce a range of planetary masses consistent with the observed distribution. Fully self-interacting models of planetary system formation can be used to create a wide variety of planetary systems, ranging from the solar system to Upsilon Andromeda (Butler et al. 1999).

  7. Evolution of Planetary Ringmoon Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.

    1995-01-01

    The last few decades have seen an avalanche of observations of planetary ring systems, both from spacecraft and from Earth. Meanwhile, we have seen steady progress in our understanding of these systems as our intuition (and our computers) catch up with the myriad ways in which gravity, fluid and statistical mechanics, and electromagnetism can combine to shape the distribution of the submicron-to-several-meter size particles which comprise ring systems. The now-complete reconnaissance of the gas giant planets by spacecraft has revealed that ring systems are invariably found in association with families of regular satellites, and there is an emerging perspective that they are not only physically but causally linked. There is also mounting evidence that many features or aspects of all planetary ring systems, if not the ring systems themselves, are considerably younger than the solar system.

  8. Architectures of planetary systems and implications for their formation.

    PubMed

    Ford, Eric B

    2014-09-02

    Doppler planet searches revealed that many giant planets orbit close to their host star or in highly eccentric orbits. These and subsequent observations inspired new theories of planet formation that invoke gravitation interactions in multiple planet systems to explain the excitation of orbital eccentricities and even short-period giant planets. Recently, NASA's Kepler mission has identified over 300 systems with multiple transiting planet candidates, including many potentially rocky planets. Most of these systems include multiple planets with closely spaced orbits and sizes between that of Earth and Neptune. These systems represent yet another new and unexpected class of planetary systems and provide an opportunity to test the theories developed to explain the properties of giant exoplanets. Presently, we have limited knowledge about such planetary systems, mostly about their sizes and orbital periods. With the advent of long-term, nearly continuous monitoring by Kepler, the method of transit timing variations (TTVs) has blossomed as a new technique for characterizing the gravitational effects of mutual planetary perturbations for hundreds of planets. TTVs can provide precise, but complex, constraints on planetary masses, densities, and orbits, even for planetary systems with faint host stars. In the coming years, astronomers will translate TTV observations into increasingly powerful constraints on the formation and orbital evolution of planetary systems with low-mass planets. Between TTVs, improved Doppler surveys, high-contrast imaging campaigns, and microlensing surveys, astronomers can look forward to a much better understanding of planet formation in the coming decade.

  9. Architectures of planetary systems and implications for their formation

    PubMed Central

    Ford, Eric B.

    2014-01-01

    Doppler planet searches revealed that many giant planets orbit close to their host star or in highly eccentric orbits. These and subsequent observations inspired new theories of planet formation that invoke gravitation interactions in multiple planet systems to explain the excitation of orbital eccentricities and even short-period giant planets. Recently, NASA’s Kepler mission has identified over 300 systems with multiple transiting planet candidates, including many potentially rocky planets. Most of these systems include multiple planets with closely spaced orbits and sizes between that of Earth and Neptune. These systems represent yet another new and unexpected class of planetary systems and provide an opportunity to test the theories developed to explain the properties of giant exoplanets. Presently, we have limited knowledge about such planetary systems, mostly about their sizes and orbital periods. With the advent of long-term, nearly continuous monitoring by Kepler, the method of transit timing variations (TTVs) has blossomed as a new technique for characterizing the gravitational effects of mutual planetary perturbations for hundreds of planets. TTVs can provide precise, but complex, constraints on planetary masses, densities, and orbits, even for planetary systems with faint host stars. In the coming years, astronomers will translate TTV observations into increasingly powerful constraints on the formation and orbital evolution of planetary systems with low-mass planets. Between TTVs, improved Doppler surveys, high-contrast imaging campaigns, and microlensing surveys, astronomers can look forward to a much better understanding of planet formation in the coming decade. PMID:24778212

  10. The search for extra-solar planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Paresce, F

    1992-01-01

    I review the observational evidence for planetary systems around nearby stars and, using our own solar system as a guide, assess the stringent requirements that new searches need to meet in order to unambiguously establish the presence of another planetary system. Basically, these requirements are: 1 milliarcsecond or better positional accuracy for astrometric techniques, 9 orders of magnitude or better star to planet luminosity ratio discrimination at 0.5 to 1" separation in the optical for direct imaging techniques, 10 meters sec-1 or better radial velocity accuracy for reflex motion techniques and +/-1% or better brightness fluctuation accuracy for planet/star occultation measurements. The astrometric accuracy is in reach of HST, direct imaging will require much larger telescopes and/or a 50 times smoother mirror than HST while the reflex motion and occultation techniques best performed on the ground are just becoming viable and promise exciting new discoveries. On the other band, new indirect evidence on the existence of other planetary systems also comes from the observation of large dusty disks around nearby main sequence stars not too dissimilar from our sun. In one particular case, that of Beta Pictoris, a flattened disk seen nearly edge-on has been imaged in the optical and near IR down to almost 70 AU of the star. It probably represents a young planetary system in its clearing out phase as planetesimals collide, erode and are swept out of the inner system by radiation pressure. The hypothesized Kuiper belt around our solar system may be the analogous structure in a later evolutionary stage. Features of this type have been detected in the far IR and sub-millimeter wavelength regions around 50-100 nearby main sequence and pre-main sequence stars. I discuss a battery of new accurate observations planned in the near future of these objects some of which may actually harbour planets or planetesimals that will certainly dramatically improve our knowledge of

  11. Spreading the passion for scientifically useful planetary observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kardasis, E.; Vourliotis, E.; Bellias, I.; Maravelias, G.; Vakalopoulos, E.; Papadeas, P.; Marouda, K.; Voutyras, O.

    2015-10-01

    Τhe "March 2015 - Planetary Observation Project (POP)" was a series of talks and hands-on workshops focused on planetary observation organized in March 2015 by the planetary section of the Hellenic Amateur Astronomy Association. Building on our previous experience (Voutyras et al. 2013), which also includes more than 500 attendants in our 2013-2014 series of lectures in Astronomy, we identified that there is a lack of more focused lectures/workshops on observing techniques. In particular, POP's structure included two talks and two workshops aiming to inspire and educate astronomy enthusiasts. The talks tried to stimulate the participants about the importance of ground-based observations by presenting the most current scientific news and puzzling problems that we are facing in the observation of planets. During the hands-on workshops the beauty of planetary observation was used to inspire participants. However, we trained participants on observing techniques and image processing to enable them to produce scientifically useful results. All POP's events were open to the public and free, meaning both out-of-charge and freely available material provided to the participants (through our website). The project offered attendants unique experiences that may have a significant impact with potential lifelong benefits. In this work we present an overview of the project structure that may work as a prototype for similar outreach programs.

  12. SPICE Supports Planetary Science Observation Geometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hall Acton, Charles; Bachman, Nathaniel J.; Semenov, Boris V.; Wright, Edward D.

    2015-11-01

    "SPICE" is an information system, comprising both data and software, providing scientists with the observation geometry needed to plan observations from instruments aboard robotic spacecraft, and to subsequently help in analyzing the data returned from those observations. The SPICE system has been used on the majority of worldwide planetary exploration missions since the time of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter. Along with its "free" price tag, portability and the absence of licensing and export restrictions, its stable, enduring qualities help make it a popular choice. But stability does not imply rigidity-improvements and new capabilities are regularly added. This poster highlights recent additions that could be of interest to planetary scientists.Geometry Finder allows one to find all the times or time intervals when a particular geometric condition exists (e.g. occultation) or when a particular geometric parameter is within a given range or has reached a maximum or minimum.Digital Shape Kernel (DSK) provides means to compute observation geometry using accurately modeled target bodies: a tessellated plate model for irregular bodies and a digital elevation model for large, regular bodies.WebGeocalc (WGC) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to a SPICE "geometry engine" installed at a mission operations facility, such as the one operated by NAIF. A WGC user need have only a computer with a web browser to access this geometry engine. Using traditional GUI widgets-drop-down menus, check boxes, radio buttons and fill-in boxes-the user inputs the data to be used, the kind of calculation wanted, and the details of that calculation. The WGC server makes the specified calculations and returns results to the user's browser.Cosmographia is a mission visualization program. This tool provides 3D visualization of solar system (target) bodies, spacecraft trajectory and orientation, instrument field-of-view "cones" and footprints, and more.The research described in this

  13. The Influence of Planetary Mass on the Dynamical Lifetime of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, J. J.; Duncan, M. J.; Young, Richard E. (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    Recent numerical and analytic studies of planetary orbits have demonstrated the importance of resonances and chaos in destabilizing planetary systems. Newton's "clockwork" description of regular, predictable planetary orbits has been replaced by a view in which many systems can have long but finite lifetimes. This new knowledge has altered our perceptions of the later stages of planetary growth and of the stability of planetary systems. Stability criteria are inexact and time dependent. Most previous studies have focused on the effects in initial planetary orbits on the stability of the system. We are conducting an investigation which focuses on the dependence of stability criteria on planetary mass. Synthetic systems are created by increasing the masses of the planets in our Solar System or of the moons of a particular planet; these systems are then integrated until orbit crossing occurs. We have found that over some ranges, the time until orbit crossing varies to a good approximation as a power clothe factor by which the masses of the secondaries arc increased; some scatter occurs as a consequence of vie chaotic nature of orbital evolution. The slope of this power law varies substantially from system to system, and for moons it is mildly dependent on the inclusion of the planet's quadrupole moment in the gravitational potential.

  14. Sensor requirements for Earth and planetary observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chahine, Moustafa T.

    1990-01-01

    Future generations of Earth and planetary remote sensing instruments will require extensive developments of new long-wave and very long-wave infrared detectors. The upcoming NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) will carry a suite of instruments to monitor a wide range of atmospheric and surface parameters with an unprecedented degree of accuracy for a period of 10 to 15 years. These instruments will observe Earth over a wide spectral range extending from the visible to nearly 17 micrometers with a moderate to high spectral and spacial resolution. In addition to expected improvements in communication bandwidth and both ground and on-board computing power, these new sensor systems will need large two-dimensional detector arrays. Such arrays exist for visible wavelengths and, to a lesser extent, for short wavelength infrared systems. The most dramatic need is for new Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) and Very Long Wavelength Infrared (VLWIR) detector technologies that are compatible with area array readout devices and can operate in the temperature range supported by long life, low power refrigerators. A scientific need for radiometric and calibration accuracies approaching 1 percent translates into a requirement for detectors with excellent linearity, stability and insensitivity to operating conditions and space radiation. Current examples of the kind of scientific missions these new thermal IR detectors would enhance in the future include instruments for Earth science such as Orbital Volcanological Observations (OVO), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), and Spectroscopy in the Atmosphere using Far Infrared Emission (SAFIRE). Planetary exploration missions such as Cassini also provide examples of instrument concepts that could be enhanced by new IR detector technologies.

  15. Dynamical models to explain observations with SPHERE in planetary systems with double debris belts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazzoni, C.; Desidera, S.; Marzari, F.; Boccaletti, A.; Langlois, M.; Mesa, D.; Gratton, R.; Kral, Q.; Pawellek, N.; Olofsson, J.; Bonnefoy, M.; Chauvin, G.; Lagrange, A. M.; Vigan, A.; Sissa, E.; Antichi, J.; Avenhaus, H.; Baruffolo, A.; Baudino, J. L.; Bazzon, A.; Beuzit, J. L.; Biller, B.; Bonavita, M.; Brandner, W.; Bruno, P.; Buenzli, E.; Cantalloube, F.; Cascone, E.; Cheetham, A.; Claudi, R. U.; Cudel, M.; Daemgen, S.; De Caprio, V.; Delorme, P.; Fantinel, D.; Farisato, G.; Feldt, M.; Galicher, R.; Ginski, C.; Girard, J.; Giro, E.; Janson, M.; Hagelberg, J.; Henning, T.; Incorvaia, S.; Kasper, M.; Kopytova, T.; LeCoroller, H.; Lessio, L.; Ligi, R.; Maire, A. L.; Ménard, F.; Meyer, M.; Milli, J.; Mouillet, D.; Peretti, S.; Perrot, C.; Rouan, D.; Samland, M.; Salasnich, B.; Salter, G.; Schmidt, T.; Scuderi, S.; Sezestre, E.; Turatto, M.; Udry, S.; Wildi, F.; Zurlo, A.

    2018-03-01

    circular or eccentric orbit. We then consider multi-planetary systems: two and three equal-mass planets on circular orbits and two equal-mass planets on eccentric orbits in a packed configuration. As a final step, we compare each couple of values (Mp, ap), derived from the dynamical analysis of single and multiple planetary models, with the detection limits obtained with SPHERE. Results: For one single planet on a circular orbit we obtain conclusive results that allow us to exclude such a hypothesis since in most cases this configuration requires massive planets which should have been detected by our observations. Unsatisfactory is also the case of one single planet on an eccentric orbit for which we obtained high masses and/or eccentricities which are still at odds with observations. Introducing multi planetary architectures is encouraging because for the case of three packed equal-mass planets on circular orbits we obtain quite low masses for the perturbing planets which would remain undetected by our SPHERE observations. The case of two equal-mass planets on eccentric orbits is also of interest since it suggests the possible presence of planets with masses lower than the detection limits and with moderate eccentricity. Our results show that the apparent lack of planets in gaps between double belts could be explained by the presence of a system of two or more planets possibly of low mass and on eccentric orbits whose sizes are below the present detection limits. Based on observations collected at Paranal Observatory, ESO (Chile) Program ID: 095.C-0298, 096.C-0241, 097.C-0865, and 198.C-0209.

  16. Possible consequences of absence of "Jupiters" in planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Wetherill, G W

    1994-01-01

    The formation of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn probably required the growth of massive approximately 15 Earth-mass cores on a time scale shorter than the approximately 10(7) time scale for removal of nebular gas. Relatively minor variations in nebular parameters could preclude the growth of full-size gas giants even in systems in which the terrestrial planet region is similar to our own. Systems containing "failed Jupiters," resembling Uranus and Neptune in their failure to capture much nebular gas, would be expected to contain more densely populated cometary source regions. They will also eject a smaller number of comets into interstellar space. If systems of this kind were the norm, observation of hyperbolic comets would be unexpected. Monte Carlo calculations of the orbital evolution of region of such systems (the Kuiper belt) indicate that throughout Earth history the cometary impact flux in their terrestrial planet regions would be approximately 1000 times greater than in our Solar System. It may be speculated that this could frustrate the evolution of organisms that observe and seek to understand their planetary system. For this reason our observation of these planets in our Solar System may tell us nothing about the probability of similar gas giants occurring in other planetary systems. This situation can be corrected by observation of an unbiased sample of planetary systems.

  17. Planetary Systems Dynamics Eccentric patterns in debris disks & Planetary migration in binary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Faramaz, V.; Beust, H.; Augereau, J.-C.; Bonsor, A.; Thébault, P.; Wu, Y.; Marshall, J. P.; del Burgo, C.; Ertel, S.; Eiroa, C.; Montesinos, B.; Mora, A.

    2014-01-01

    We present some highlights of two ongoing investigations that deal with the dynamics of planetary systems. Firstly, until recently, observed eccentric patterns in debris disks were found in young systems. However recent observations of Gyr-old eccentric debris disks leads to question the survival timescale of this type of asymmetry. One such disk was recently observed in the far-IR by the Herschel Space Observatory around ζ2 Reticuli. Secondly, as a binary companion orbits a circumprimary disk, it creates regions where planet formation is strongly handicapped. However, some planets were detected in this zone in tight binary systems (γ Cep, HD 196885). We aim to determine whether a binary companion can affect migration such that planets are brought in these regions and focus in particular on the planetesimal-driven migration mechanism.

  18. The detection of planetary systems from Space Station - A star observation strategy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mascy, Alfred C.; Nishioka, Ken; Jorgensen, Helen; Swenson, Byron L.

    1987-01-01

    A 10-20-yr star-observation program for the Space Station Astrometric Telescope Facility (ATF) is proposed and evaluated by means of computer simulations. The primary aim of the program is to detect stars with planetary systems by precise determination of their motion relative to reference stars. The designs proposed for the ATF are described and illustrated; the basic parameters of the 127 stars selected for the program are listed in a table; spacecraft and science constraints, telescope slewing rates, and the possibility of limiting the program sample to stars near the Galactic equator are discussed; and the effects of these constraints are investigated by simulating 1 yr of ATF operation. Viewing all sky regions, the ATF would have 81-percent active viewing time, observing each star about 200 times (56 h) per yr; only small decrements in this performance would result from limiting the viewing field.

  19. Asteroid observations and planetary atmospheres analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baum, W. A.; Millis, R. L.; Bowell, E. L. G.

    1975-01-01

    Photoelectric observations of Eros and 30 other asteroids providing information on their surface characteristics, shape, and rotation axes are reported. Photographs of 18 asteroids and 4 comets yielding accurate position information on various dates were obtained. Photometric observations were made of the Saturn satellite lapetus, and electronographic images of the Uranus and Neptune satellites were obtained experimentally with a Spectracon tube to assess photometry by that method. Planetary patrol photographs of Venus and deconvolved area scans of Uranus were taken. UBV photometry of the Galilean satellites for the period 1973-1974 was completely analyzed and accepted for publication. An improved magnitude and color index for Minas were derived from 1974 area scans. A special photomultiplier tube with a suppressor grid was incorporated into a pulse-counting photometer with special added circuitry for carrying out the observations concerning the constancy of solar system dimensions over cosmic time.

  20. Robo-AO Kepler Survey. IV. The Effect of Nearby Stars on 3857 Planetary Candidate Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ziegler, Carl; Law, Nicholas M.; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed; Duev, Dmitry A.; Howard, Ward; Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Kulkarni, S. R.; Morton, Tim; Salama, Maïssa

    2018-04-01

    We present the overall statistical results from the Robo-AO Kepler planetary candidate survey, comprising of 3857 high-angular resolution observations of planetary candidate systems with Robo-AO, an automated laser adaptive optics system. These observations reveal previously unknown nearby stars blended with the planetary candidate host stars that alter the derived planetary radii or may be the source of an astrophysical false positive transit signal. In the first three papers in the survey, we detected 440 nearby stars around 3313 planetary candidate host stars. In this paper, we present observations of 532 planetary candidate host stars, detecting 94 companions around 88 stars; 84 of these companions have not previously been observed in high resolution. We also report 50 more-widely separated companions near 715 targets previously observed by Robo-AO. We derive corrected planetary radius estimates for the 814 planetary candidates in systems with a detected nearby star. If planetary candidates are equally likely to orbit the primary or secondary star, the radius estimates for planetary candidates in systems with likely bound nearby stars increase by a factor of 1.54, on average. We find that 35 previously believed rocky planet candidates are likely not rocky due to the presence of nearby stars. From the combined data sets from the complete Robo-AO KOI survey, we find that 14.5 ± 0.5% of planetary candidate hosts have a nearby star with 4″, while 1.2% have two nearby stars, and 0.08% have three. We find that 16% of Earth-sized, 13% of Neptune-sized, 14% of Saturn-sized, and 19% of Jupiter-sized planet candidates have detected nearby stars.

  1. Trends in Planetary Data Analysis. Executive summary of the Planetary Data Workshop

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Evans, N.

    1984-01-01

    Planetary data include non-imaging remote sensing data, which includes spectrometric, radiometric, and polarimetric remote sensing observations. Also included are in-situ, radio/radar data, and Earth based observation. Also discussed is development of a planetary data system. A catalog to identify observations will be the initial entry point for all levels of users into the data system. There are seven distinct data support services: encyclopedia, data index, data inventory, browse, search, sample, and acquire. Data systems for planetary science users must provide access to data, process, store, and display data. Two standards will be incorporated into the planetary data system: Standard communications protocol and Standard format data unit. The data system configuration must combine a distributed system with those of a centralized system. Fiscal constraints have made prioritization important. Activities include saving previous mission data, planning/cost analysis, and publishing of proceedings.

  2. Natural fracture systems on planetary surfaces: Genetic classification and pattern randomness

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rossbacher, Lisa A.

    1987-01-01

    One method for classifying natural fracture systems is by fracture genesis. This approach involves the physics of the formation process, and it has been used most frequently in attempts to predict subsurface fractures and petroleum reservoir productivity. This classification system can also be applied to larger fracture systems on any planetary surface. One problem in applying this classification system to planetary surfaces is that it was developed for ralatively small-scale fractures that would influence porosity, particularly as observed in a core sample. Planetary studies also require consideration of large-scale fractures. Nevertheless, this system offers some valuable perspectives on fracture systems of any size.

  3. Confrontation Between a Quantized Periods of Some Exo-planetary Systems and Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    El Fady Morcos, Abd

    2012-07-01

    Confrontation Between a Quantized Periods of Some Exo-planetary Systems and Observations A.B. Morcos Corot and Kepler were designed to detect Earth-like extra solar planets. The orbital elements and periods of these planets will contain some uncertainties. Many theoretical treatments depend on the idea of quantization were done aiming to find orbital elements of these exoplenets. In the present work, as an extension of previous works, the periods of some extoplanetary systems are calculated by using a simple derived formula. The orbital velocities of some of them are predicted . A comparison between the calculated and observed data is done References 1-J.M. Barnothy , the stability of the Solar System and of small Stellar Systems . (Y.Kazai edn,IAU,1974). 2-L.Nottale,Fractal Space-Time and Microphysics,Towards a Theory of Scale Relativity,( World Scientific, London,1994). 3-L. Nottale, A&A Lett. 315, L9 (1996). 4-L. Nottale, G. Schumacher and J. Gay, A&A , 322, 1018 , (1997). 5-L. Nottale, A&A , 361, 379 (2000). 6-A.G. Agnese and R.Festa, arXiv:astro-ph/9807186v1, (1998). 7-A.G. Agnese and R.Festa, arXiv:astro-ph/9910534v2. (1999). 8- A.B.Morcos, MG 12 , France (2009). 9- A.B.Morcs, Cospar 38 , Bremen , Germany (2010)

  4. Stability and self-organization of planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Pakter, Renato; Levin, Yan

    2018-04-01

    We show that stability of planetary systems is intimately connected with their internal order. An arbitrary initial distribution of planets is susceptible to catastrophic events in which planets either collide or are ejected from the planetary system. These instabilities are a fundamental consequence of chaotic dynamics and of Arnold diffusion characteristic of many body gravitational interactions. To ensure stability over astronomical time scale of a realistic planetary system-in which planets have masses comparable to those of planets in the solar system-the motion must be quasiperiodic. A dynamical mechanism is proposed which naturally evolves a planetary system to a quasiperiodic state from an arbitrary initial condition. A planetary self-organization predicted by the theory is similar to the one found in our solar system.

  5. The Planetary Data System Information Model for Geometry Metadata

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guinness, E. A.; Gordon, M. K.

    2014-12-01

    The NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) has recently developed a new set of archiving standards based on a rigorously defined information model. An important part of the new PDS information model is the model for geometry metadata, which includes, for example, attributes of the lighting and viewing angles of observations, position and velocity vectors of a spacecraft relative to Sun and observing body at the time of observation and the location and orientation of an observation on the target. The PDS geometry model is based on requirements gathered from the planetary research community, data producers, and software engineers who build search tools. A key requirement for the model is that it fully supports the breadth of PDS archives that include a wide range of data types from missions and instruments observing many types of solar system bodies such as planets, ring systems, and smaller bodies (moons, comets, and asteroids). Thus, important design aspects of the geometry model are that it standardizes the definition of the geometry attributes and provides consistency of geometry metadata across planetary science disciplines. The model specification also includes parameters so that the context of values can be unambiguously interpreted. For example, the reference frame used for specifying geographic locations on a planetary body is explicitly included with the other geometry metadata parameters. The structure and content of the new PDS geometry model is designed to enable both science analysis and efficient development of search tools. The geometry model is implemented in XML, as is the main PDS information model, and uses XML schema for validation. The initial version of the geometry model is focused on geometry for remote sensing observations conducted by flyby and orbiting spacecraft. Future releases of the PDS geometry model will be expanded to include metadata for landed and rover spacecraft.

  6. TOPS: Toward Other Planetary Systems. A report by the solar system exploration division

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1995-01-01

    This report describes a general plan and the pertinent technological requirements for TOPS (Toward Other Planetary Systems), a staged program to ascertain the prevalence and character of other planetary systems and to construct a definitive picture of the formation of stars and their planets. The first stages focus on discovering and studying a significant number of fully formed planetary systems, as well as expanding current studies of protoplanetary systems. As the TOPS Program evolves, emphasis will shift toward intensive study of the discovered systems and of individual planets. Early stages of the TOPS Program can be undertaken with ground-based observations and space missions comparable in scale to those now being performed. In the long term, however, TOPS will become an ambitious program that challenges our capabilities and provides impetus for major space initiatives and new technologies.

  7. The Allegheny Observatory search for planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gatewood, George D.

    1989-01-01

    The accomplishments of the observatory's search for planetary systems are summarized. Among these were the construction, implementation, and regular use of the Multichannel Astrometric Photometer (MAP), and the design, fabrication and use of the second largest refractor objective built since 1950. The MAP parallax and planetary observing programs are described. Various developments concerning alternate solid state photodetectors and telescope instrumentation are summarized. The extreme accuracy of the system is described in relation to a study of the position and velocity of the members of the open cluster Upgren 1. The binary star system stringently tests the theory of stellar evolution since it is composed of an evolved giant F5 III and a subgiant F5 IV star. A study that attempts to measure the luminosities, surface temperatures, and masses of these stars is discussed.

  8. Stability and self-organization of planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pakter, Renato; Levin, Yan

    2018-04-01

    We show that stability of planetary systems is intimately connected with their internal order. An arbitrary initial distribution of planets is susceptible to catastrophic events in which planets either collide or are ejected from the planetary system. These instabilities are a fundamental consequence of chaotic dynamics and of Arnold diffusion characteristic of many body gravitational interactions. To ensure stability over astronomical time scale of a realistic planetary system—in which planets have masses comparable to those of planets in the solar system—the motion must be quasiperiodic. A dynamical mechanism is proposed which naturally evolves a planetary system to a quasiperiodic state from an arbitrary initial condition. A planetary self-organization predicted by the theory is similar to the one found in our solar system.

  9. Planetary Regolith Delivery Systems for ISRU

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mantovani, James G.; Townsend, Ivan I., III

    2012-01-01

    The challenges associated with collecting regolith on a planetary surface and delivering it to an in-situ resource utilization system differ significantly from similar activities conducted on Earth. Since system maintenance on a planetary body can be difficult or impossible to do, high reliability and service life are expected of a regolith delivery system. Mission costs impose upper limits on power and mass. The regolith delivery system must provide a leak-tight interface between the near-vacuum planetary surface and the pressurized ISRU system. Regolith delivery in amounts ranging from a few grams to tens of kilograms may be required. Finally, the spent regolith must be removed from the ISRU chamber and returned to the planetary environment via dust tolerant valves capable of operating and sealing over a large temperature range. This paper will describe pneumatic and auger regolith transfer systems that have already been field tested for ISRU, and discuss other systems that await future field testing.

  10. Other Planetary Systems: The View From Our Neighborhood

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cruikshank, Dale P.; Witteborn, Fred C. (Technical Monitor)

    1995-01-01

    The structure and contents of the Solar System offer an initial model for other planetary systems in this and other galaxies. Our knowledge of the bodies in the Solar System and their physical conditions has grown enormously in the three decades of planetary exploration. Parallel to the uncovering of new facts has been a great expansion of our understanding of just how these conditions came to be. Telescopic studies and missions to all the planets (except Pluto) have shown spectacular and unexpected diversity among those planets, their satellites, the asteroids, and the comets. Highlights include the organic-rich crust of comets, volcanic activity on planetary satellites, randomly oriented magnetic fields of the major planets, the existence of a huge population of planetesimals just beyond Neptune, dramatic combinations of exogenic and endogenic forces shaping the solid bodies throughout the Solar System, and much more. Simultaneously, computational, laboratory, and conceptual advances have shown that the Solar System is not fully evolved either dynamically or chemically. The discovery of clearly identified interstellar (presolar) material in the meteorites and comets connects us directly with the matter in the molecular cloud from which the Solar System originated. At the same time, an increased understanding of the chemistry of comets and the impact history of the planets has demonstrated the dependence of the origin and evolution of life on Earth on powerful exogenic factors. This presentation summarizes some of the new knowledge of the Solar System and proposes specific character ist ics that may be observed in (or used as criteria for identification of) extrasolar planetary systems.

  11. Connecting the Astrophysics Data System and Planetary Data System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eichhorn, G.; Kurtz, M. J.; Accomazzi, A.; Grant, C. S.; Murray, S. S.; Hughes, J. S.; Mortellaro, J.; McMahon, S. K.

    1997-07-01

    The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) provides access to astronomical literature through a sophisticated search engine. Over 10,000 users retrieve almost 5 million references and read more than 25,000 full text articles per month. ADS cooperates closely with all the main astronomical journals and data centers to create and maintain a state-of-the-art digital library. The Planetary Data System (PDS) publishes high quality peer reviewed planetary science data products, defines planetary archiving standards to make products usable, and provides science expertise to users in data product preparation and use. Data products are available to users on CD media, with more than 600 CD-ROM titles in the inventory from past missions as well as the recent releases from active planetary missions and observations. The ADS and PDS serve overlapping communities and offer complementary functions. The ADS and PDS are both part of the NASA Space Science Data System, sponsored by the Office of Space Science, which curates science data products for researchers and the general public. We are in the process of connecting these two data systems. As a first step we have included entries for PDS data sets in the ADS abstract service. This allows ADS users to find PDS data sets by searching for their descriptions through the ADS search system. The information returned from the ADS links directly to the data set's entry in the PDS data set catalog. After linking to this catalog, the user will have access to more comprehensive data set information, related ancillary information, and on-line data products. The PDS on the other hand will use the ADS to provide access to bibliographic information. This includes links from PDS data set catalog bibliographic citations to ADS abstracts and on-line articles. The cross-linking between these data systems allows each system to concentrate on its main objectives and utilize the other system to provide more and improved services to the users of both systems.

  12. The complex planetary synchronization structure of the solar system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scafetta, N.

    2014-01-01

    The complex planetary synchronization structure of the solar system, which since Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570-495 BC) is known as the music of the spheres, is briefly reviewed from the Renaissance up to contemporary research. Copernicus' heliocentric model from 1543 suggested that the planets of our solar system form a kind of mutually ordered and quasi-synchronized system. From 1596 to 1619 Kepler formulated preliminary mathematical relations of approximate commensurabilities among the planets, which were later reformulated in the Titius-Bode rule (1766-1772), which successfully predicted the orbital position of Ceres and Uranus. Following the discovery of the ~ 11 yr sunspot cycle, in 1859 Wolf suggested that the observed solar variability could be approximately synchronized with the orbital movements of Venus, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Modern research has further confirmed that (1) the planetary orbital periods can be approximately deduced from a simple system of resonant frequencies; (2) the solar system oscillates with a specific set of gravitational frequencies, and many of them (e.g., within the range between 3 yr and 100 yr) can be approximately constructed as harmonics of a base period of ~ 178.38 yr; and (3) solar and climate records are also characterized by planetary harmonics from the monthly to the millennial timescales. This short review concludes with an emphasis on the contribution of the author's research on the empirical evidences and physical modeling of both solar and climate variability based on astronomical harmonics. The general conclusion is that the solar system works as a resonator characterized by a specific harmonic planetary structure that also synchronizes the Sun's activity and the Earth's climate. The special issue Pattern in solar variability, their planetary origin and terrestrial impacts (Mörner et al., 2013) further develops the ideas about the planetary-solar-terrestrial interaction with the personal contribution of 10

  13. Multi-Planetary Systems: Observations and Models of Dynamical Interactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.

    2018-01-01

    More than 600 multi-planet systems are known. The vast majority of these systems have been discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, but dozens were found using the Doppler technique, the first multi-exoplanet system was identified through pulsar timing, and the most massive system has been found using imaging. More than one-third of the 4000+ planet candidates found by NASA's Kepler spacecraft are associated with target stars that have more than one planet candidate, and the large number of such Kepler "multis" tells us that flat multiplanet systems like our Solar System are common. Virtually all of Kepler candidate multis are stable, as tested by numerical integrations that assume a physically motivated mass-radius relationship. Statistical studies performed on these candidate systems reveal a great deal about the architecture of planetary systems, including the typical spacing of orbits and flatness. The characteristics of several of the most interesting confirmed multi-exoplanet systems will also be discussed.HR 8799's four massive planets orbit tens of AU from their host star and travel on nearly circular orbits. PSR B1257+12 has three much smaller planets orbiting close to a neutron star. Both represent extremes and show that planet formation is a robust process that produces a diversity of outcomes. Although both exomoons and Trojan (triangle Lagrange point) planets have been searched for, neither has yet been found.

  14. Occurrence of earth-like bodies in planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wetherill, George W.

    1991-01-01

    Present theories of terrestrial planet formation predict the rapid 'runaway formation' of planetary embryos. The sizes of the embryos increase with heliocentric distance. These embryos then emerge to form planets. In earlier Monte Carlo simulations of the merger of these embryos it was assumed that embryos did not form in the asteroid belt, but this assumption may not be valid. Simulations in which runaways were allowed to form in the asteroid belt show that, although the initial distributions of mass, energy, and angular momentum are different from those observed today, during the growth of the planets these distributions spontaneously evolve toward those observed, simply as a result of known solar system processes. Even when a large planet analogous to 'Jupiter' does not form, an earth-sized planet is almost always found near earth's heliocentric distance. These results suggest that occurrence of earthlike planets may be a common feature of planetary systems.

  15. The Kepler Dichotomy in Planetary Disks: Linking Kepler Observables to Simulations of Late-stage Planet Formation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moriarty, John; Ballard, Sarah

    2016-11-01

    NASA’s Kepler Mission uncovered a wealth of planetary systems, many with planets on short-period orbits. These short-period systems reside around 50% of Sun-like stars and are similarly prevalent around M dwarfs. Their formation and subsequent evolution is the subject of active debate. In this paper, we simulate late-stage, in situ planet formation across a grid of planetesimal disks with varying surface density profiles and total mass. We compare simulation results with observable characteristics of the Kepler sample. We identify mixture models with different primordial planetesimal disk properties that self-consistently recover the multiplicity, radius, period and period ratio, and duration ratio distributions of the Kepler planets. We draw three main conclusions. (1) We favor a “frozen-in” narrative for systems of short-period planets, in which they are stable over long timescales, as opposed to metastable. (2) The “Kepler dichotomy,” an observed phenomenon of the Kepler sample wherein the architectures of planetary systems appear to either vary significantly or have multiple modes, can naturally be explained by formation within planetesimal disks with varying surface density profiles. Finally, (3) we quantify the nature of the “Kepler dichotomy” for both GK stars and M dwarfs, and find that it varies with stellar type. While the mode of planet formation that accounts for high multiplicity systems occurs in 24% ± 7% of planetary systems orbiting GK stars, it occurs in 63% ± 16% of planetary systems orbiting M dwarfs.

  16. Strategy of Planetary Data Archives in Japanese Missions for Planetary Data System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamamoto, Y.; Ishihara, Y.; Murakami, S. Y.

    2017-12-01

    To preserve data acquired by Japanese planetary explorations for a long time, we need a data archiving strategy in a form suitable for resources. Planetary Data System(PDS) developed by NASA is an excellent system for saving data over a long period. Especially for the current version 4 (PDS4), it is possible to create a data archive with high completeness using information technology. Historically, the Japanese planetary missions have archived data by scientists in their ways, but in the past decade, JAXA has been aiming to conform data to PDS considering long term preservation. Hayabusa, Akatsuki are archived in PDS3. Kaguya(SELENE) data have been newly converted from the original format to PDS3. Hayabusa2 and BepiColombo, and future planetary explorations will release data in PDS4. The cooperation of engineers who are familiar with information technology is indispensable to create data archives for scientists. In addition, it is essential to have experience, information sharing, and a system to support it. There is a challenge in Japan about the system.

  17. Dynamics of Populations of Planetary Systems (IAU C197)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knezevic, Zoran; Milani, Andrea

    2005-05-01

    1. Resonances and stability of extra-solar planetary systems C. Beaugé, N. Callegari, S. Ferraz-Mello and T. A. Michtchenko; 2. Formation, migration, and stability of extrasolar planetary systems Fred C. Adams; 3. Dynamical evolution of extrasolar planetary systems Ji-Lin Zhou and Yi-Sui Sun; 4. Dynamics of planetesimals: the role of two-body relaxation Eiichiro Kokubo; 5. Fitting orbits Andrzej J. Maciejewski, Krzysztof Gozdziewski and Szymon Kozlowski; 6. The secular planetary three body problem revisited Jacques Henrard and Anne-Sophie Libert; 7. Dynamics of extrasolar systems at the 5/2 resonance: application to 47 UMa Dionyssia Psychoyos and John D. Hadjidemetriou; 8. Our solar system as model for exosolar planetary systems Rudolf Dvorak, Áron Süli and Florian Freistetter; 9. Planetary motion in double stars: the influence of the secondary Elke Pilat-Lohinger; 10. Planetary orbits in double stars: influence of the binary's orbital eccentricity Daniel Benest and Robert Gonczi; 11. Astrometric observations of 51 Peg and Gliese 623 at Pulkovo observatory with 65 cm refractor N. A. Shakht; 12. Observations of 61 Cyg at Pulkovo Denis L. Gorshanov, N. A. Shakht, A. A. Kisselev and E. V. Poliakow; 13. Formation of the solar system by instability Evgeny Griv and Michael Gedalin; 14. Behaviour of a two-planetary system on a cosmogonic time-scale Konstantin V. Kholshevnikov and Eduard D. Kuznetsov; 15. Boundaries of the habitable zone: unifying dynamics, astrophysics, and astrobiology Milan M. Cirkovic; 16. Asteroid proper elements: recent computational progress Fernando Roig and Cristian Beaugé; 17. Asteroid family classification from very large catalogues Anne Lemaitre; 18. Non-gravitational perturbations and evolution of the asteroid main belt David Vokrouhlicky, M. Broz and W. F. Bottke, D. Nesvorny and A. Morbidelli; 19. Diffusion in the asteroid belt Harry Varvoglis; 20. Accurate model for the Yarkovsky effect David Capek and David Vokrouhlicky; 21. The

  18. Possible Transit Timing Variations of the TrES-3 Planetary System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, Ing-Guey; Yeh, Li-Chin; Thakur, Parijat; Wu, Yu-Ting; Chien, Ping; Lin, Yi-Ling; Chen, Hong-Yu; Hu, Juei-Hwa; Sun, Zhao; Ji, Jianghui

    2013-03-01

    Five newly observed transit light curves of the TrES-3 planetary system are presented. Together with other light-curve data from the literature, 23 transit light curves in total, which cover an overall timescale of 911 epochs, have been analyzed through a standard procedure. From these observational data, the system's orbital parameters are determined and possible transit timing variations (TTVs) are investigated. Given that a null TTV produces a fit with reduced χ2 = 1.52, our results agree with previous work, that TTVs might not exist in these data. However, a one-frequency oscillating TTV model, giving a fit with a reduced χ2 = 0.93, does possess a statistically higher probability. It is thus concluded that future observations and dynamical simulations for this planetary system will be very important.

  19. A high-precision radial-velocity survey for other planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cochran, William D.; Hatzes, Artie P.

    1994-01-01

    The precise measurement of variations in stellar radial velocities provides one of several promising methods of surveying a large sample of nearby solar type stars to detect planetary systems in orbit around them. The McDonald Observatory Planetary Search (MOPS) was started in 1987 September with the goal of detecting other nearby planetary systems. A stabilized I2 gas absorption cell placed in front of the entrance slit to the McDonald Observatory 2.7 m telescope coude spectrograph serves as the velocity metric. With this I2 cell we can achieve radial velocity measurement precision better than 10 m/s in an individual measurement. At this level we can detect a Jupiter-like planet around a solar-type star, and have some hope of detecting Saturn-like planets in a long-term survey. The detectability of planets is ultimately limited by stellar pulsation modes and photospheric motions. Monthly MOPS observing runs allow us to obtain at least 5 independent observations per year of the 33 solar-type (F5-K7) stars on our observing list. We present representative results from the first five years of the survey.

  20. Occurrence of Earth-like bodies in planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Wetherill, G W

    1991-08-02

    Present theories of terrestrial planet formation predict the rapid ;;runaway formation'' of planetary embryos. The sizes of the embryos increase with heliocentric distance. These embryos then merge to form planets. In earlier Monte Carlo simulations of the merger of these embryos it was assumed that embryos did not form in the asteroid belt, but this assumption may not be valid. Simulations in which runaways were allowed to form in the asteroid belt show that, although the initial distributions of mass, energy, and angular momentum are different from those observed today, during the growth of the planets these distributions spontaneously evolve toward those observed, simply as a result of known solar system processes. Even when a large planet analogous to ;;Jupiter'' does not form, an Earth-sized planet is almost always found near Earth's heliocentric distance. These results suggest that occurrence of Earth-like planets may be a common feature of planetary systems.

  1. A review of the scientific rationale and methods used in the search for other planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Black, D. C.

    1985-01-01

    Planetary systems appear to be one of the crucial links in the chain leading from simple molecules to living systems, particularly complex (intelligent?) living systems. Although there is currently no observational proof of the existence of any planetary system other than our own, techniques are now being developed which will permit a comprehensive search for other planetary systems. The scientific rationale for and methods used in such a search effort are reviewed here.

  2. Stability of planetary orbits in triple star systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Busetti, Franco; Beust, Hervé; Harley, Charis

    2018-06-01

    Triple stellar systems comprising a central binary orbited by a third star at a larger distance are fairly common. However, there have been very few studies on the stability of planetary orbits in such systems. There has been almost no work on generalised systems, little on retrograde planetary orbits and none on retrograde stellar orbits, with nearly all being for coplanar orbits and for a limited number of orbital parameters. We provide a generalised numerical mapping of the regions of planetary stability in triples, using the symplectic N-body code HJS (Beust 2003) designed for the dynamics of multiple hierarchical systems. We investigate all these orbit types and extend the parameters used to all relevant orbital elements of the triple’s stars, also expanding these elements and mass ratios to wider ranges.This establishes the regions of secular stability and results in empirical models describing the stability bounds for planets in each type of triple configuration, as functions of the various system parameters. These results are compared to the corresponding results for binaries in the limit of a vanishing mass of the third star. A general feature is that retrograde planetary orbits appear more stable than prograde ones, and that stable regions also tend to be wider when the third star's motion is retrograde. Conversely, we point out the destabilizing role of Kozai-Lidov resonance in non-coplanar systems, which shrinks the stability regions as a result of large induced eccentricity variations. Nonetheless, large enough stability regions for planets do exist in triples, and this should motivate future observational campaigns.Refs : Beust, 2003, A&A 400, 1129 Busetti, Beust, Harley, 2018, to be submitted to A&A

  3. Characteristics of Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the First Four Months of Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borucki, William J.; Koch, David G.; Basri, Gibor; Batalha, Natalie; Brown, Timothy M.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Caldwell, Douglas; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Cochran, William D.; DeVore, Edna; Dunham, Edward W.; Gautier, Thomas N., III; Geary, John C.; Gilliland, Ronald; Gould, Alan; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Latham, David W.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Rowe, Jason; Sasselov, Dimitar; Boss, Alan; Charbonneau, David; Ciardi, David; Doyle, Laurance; Dupree, Andrea K.; Ford, Eric B.; Fortney, Jonathan; Holman, Matthew J.; Seager, Sara; Steffen, Jason H.; Tarter, Jill; Welsh, William F.; Allen, Christopher; Buchhave, Lars A.; Christiansen, Jessie L.; Clarke, Bruce D.; Das, Santanu; Désert, Jean-Michel; Endl, Michael; Fabrycky, Daniel; Fressin, Francois; Haas, Michael; Horch, Elliott; Howard, Andrew; Isaacson, Howard; Kjeldsen, Hans; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery; Kulesa, Craig; Li, Jie; Lucas, Philip W.; Machalek, Pavel; McCarthy, Donald; MacQueen, Phillip; Meibom, Søren; Miquel, Thibaut; Prsa, Andrej; Quinn, Samuel N.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Ragozzine, Darin; Sherry, William; Shporer, Avi; Tenenbaum, Peter; Torres, Guillermo; Twicken, Joseph D.; Van Cleve, Jeffrey; Walkowicz, Lucianne; Witteborn, Fred C.; Still, Martin

    2011-07-01

    On 2011 February 1 the Kepler mission released data for 156,453 stars observed from the beginning of the science observations on 2009 May 2 through September 16. There are 1235 planetary candidates with transit-like signatures detected in this period. These are associated with 997 host stars. Distributions of the characteristics of the planetary candidates are separated into five class sizes: 68 candidates of approximately Earth-size (R p < 1.25 R ⊕), 288 super-Earth-size (1.25 R ⊕ <= R p < 2 R ⊕), 662 Neptune-size (2 R ⊕ <= R p < 6 R ⊕), 165 Jupiter-size (6 R ⊕ <= R p < 15 R ⊕), and 19 up to twice the size of Jupiter (15 R ⊕ <= R p < 22 R ⊕). In the temperature range appropriate for the habitable zone, 54 candidates are found with sizes ranging from Earth-size to larger than that of Jupiter. Six are less than twice the size of the Earth. Over 74% of the planetary candidates are smaller than Neptune. The observed number versus size distribution of planetary candidates increases to a peak at two to three times the Earth-size and then declines inversely proportional to the area of the candidate. Our current best estimates of the intrinsic frequencies of planetary candidates, after correcting for geometric and sensitivity biases, are 5% for Earth-size candidates, 8% for super-Earth-size candidates, 18% for Neptune-size candidates, 2% for Jupiter-size candidates, and 0.1% for very large candidates; a total of 0.34 candidates per star. Multi-candidate, transiting systems are frequent; 17% of the host stars have multi-candidate systems, and 34% of all the candidates are part of multi-candidate systems.

  4. POSSIBLE TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS OF THE TrES-3 PLANETARY SYSTEM

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jiang, Ing-Guey; Wu, Yu-Ting; Chien, Ping

    2013-03-15

    Five newly observed transit light curves of the TrES-3 planetary system are presented. Together with other light-curve data from the literature, 23 transit light curves in total, which cover an overall timescale of 911 epochs, have been analyzed through a standard procedure. From these observational data, the system's orbital parameters are determined and possible transit timing variations (TTVs) are investigated. Given that a null TTV produces a fit with reduced {chi}{sup 2} = 1.52, our results agree with previous work, that TTVs might not exist in these data. However, a one-frequency oscillating TTV model, giving a fit with a reducedmore » {chi}{sup 2} = 0.93, does possess a statistically higher probability. It is thus concluded that future observations and dynamical simulations for this planetary system will be very important.« less

  5. Formation of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

    1999-01-01

    An overview of current theories of star and planet formation is presented. These models are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments. They predict that rocky planets should form around most single stars, although it is possible that in some cases such planets are lost to orbital decay within the protoplanetary disk. The frequency of formation of gas giant planets is more difficult to predict theoretically. Terrestrial planets are believed to grow via pairwise accretion until the spacing of planetary orbits becomes large enough that the configuration is stable for the age of the system. Giant planets begin their growth like terrestrial planets, but they become massive enough that they are able to accumulate substantial amounts of gas before the protoplanetary disk dissipates.

  6. Review of methodology and technology available for the detection of extrasolar planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tarter, J. C.; Black, D. C.; Billingham, J.

    1986-01-01

    Anyone undertaking an interstellar voyage might wish to be assured of the existence of a safe planetary harbor at the other end! Aside from the obvious interest of the participants in this Symposium, astronomers and astrophysicists are also eager to detect and study other planetary systems in order to better understand the formation of our own Solar System. Scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence argue that planets suitable for the evolution of life may abound elsewhere within our own Milky Way Galaxy. On theoretical grounds, they are probably correct, but they lack any observational support. For in spite of decades of claimed astrometric detections of planetary companions and the recent exciting and tantalizing observations from the IRAS satellite and the IR speckle observations of Van Biesbroeck 8 and other cool stars, there is no unambiguous proof for the existence of another planetary system beyond our own. In this paper we review the various methods for detecting extrasolar planets and briefly describe the Earth and space based technology currently available and discuss the near-term plans to implement these different search techniques. In each case an attempt is made to identify the limiting source of systematic error inherent to the methodology and to assess the potential for technological improvements.

  7. Review of methodology and technology available for the detection of extrasolar planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Tarter, J C; Black, D C; Billingham, J

    1986-01-01

    Anyone undertaking an interstellar voyage might wish to be assured of the existence of a safe planetary harbor at the other end! Aside from the obvious interest of the participants in this Symposium, astronomers and astrophysicists are also eager to detect and study other planetary systems in order to better understand the formation of our own Solar System. Scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence argue that planets suitable for the evolution of life may abound elsewhere within our own Milky Way Galaxy. On theoretical grounds, they are probably correct, but they lack any observational support. For in spite of decades of claimed astrometric detections of planetary companions and the recent exciting and tantalizing observations from the IRAS satellite and the IR speckle observations of Van Biesbroeck 8 and other cool stars, there is no unambiguous proof for the existence of another planetary system beyond our own. In this paper we review the various methods for detecting extrasolar planets and briefly describe the Earth and space based technology currently available and discuss the near-term plans to implement these different search techniques. In each case an attempt is made to identify the limiting source of systematic error inherent to the methodology and to assess the potential for technological improvements.

  8. The Role of NASA's Planetary Data System in the Planetary Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiative

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arvidson, R. E.; Gaddis, L. R.

    2017-12-01

    An effort underway in NASA's planetary science community is the Mapping and Planetary Spatial Infrastructure Team (MAPSIT, http://www.lpi.usra.edu/mapsit/). MAPSIT is a community assessment group organized to address a lack of strategic spatial data planning for space science and exploration. Working with MAPSIT, a new initiative of NASA and USGS is the development of a Planetary Spatial Data Infrastructure (PSDI) that builds on extensive knowledge on storing, accessing, and working with terrestrial spatial data. PSDI is a knowledge and technology framework that enables the efficient discovery, access, and exploitation of planetary spatial data to facilitate data analysis, knowledge synthesis, and decision-making. NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) archives >1.2 petabytes of digital data resulting from decades of planetary exploration and research. The PDS charter focuses on the efficient collection, archiving, and accessibility of these data. The PDS emphasis on data preservation and archiving is complementary to that of the PSDI initiative because the latter utilizes and extends available data to address user needs in the areas of emerging technologies, rapid development of tailored delivery systems, and development of online collaborative research environments. The PDS plays an essential PSDI role because it provides expertise to help NASA missions and other data providers to organize and document their planetary data, to collect and maintain the archives with complete, well-documented and peer-reviewed planetary data, to make planetary data accessible by providing online data delivery tools and search services, and ultimately to ensure the long-term preservation and usability of planetary data. The current PDS4 information model extends and expands PDS metadata and relationships between and among elements of the collections. The PDS supports data delivery through several node services, including the Planetary Image Atlas (https

  9. Planetary Rings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.

    1994-01-01

    Just over two decades ago, Jim Pollack made a critical contribution to our understanding of planetary ring particle properties, and resolved a major apparent paradox between radar reflection and radio emission observations. At the time, particle properties were about all there were to study about planetary rings, and the fundamental questions were, why is Saturn the only planet with rings, how big are the particles, and what are they made of? Since then, we have received an avalanche of observations of planetary ring systems, both from spacecraft and from Earth. Meanwhile, we have seen steady progress in our understanding of the myriad ways in which gravity, fluid and statistical mechanics, and electromagnetism can combine to shape the distribution of the submicron-to-several-meter size particles which comprise ring systems into the complex webs of structure that we now know them to display. Insights gained from studies of these giant dynamical analogs have carried over into improved understanding of the formation of the planets themselves from particle disks, a subject very close to Jim's heart. The now-complete reconnaissance of the gas giant planets by spacecraft has revealed that ring systems are invariably found in association with families of regular satellites, and there is ark emerging perspective that they are not only physically but causally linked. There is also mounting evidence that many features or aspects of all planetary ring systems, if not the ring systems themselves, are considerably younger than the solar system

  10. Planetary System Physics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Peale, S. J.

    2002-01-01

    Contents include a summary of publications followed by their abstracts titeled: 1. On microlensing rates and optical depth toward the Galactic center. 2. Newly discovered brown dwarfs not seen in microlensing timescale frequency distribution? 3. Origin and evolution of the natural satellites. 4. Probing the structure of the galaxy with microlensing. 5. Tides, Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 6. The Puzzle of the Titan-Hyperion 4:3 Orbital Resonance. 7. On the Validity of the Coagulation Equation and the Nature of Runaway Growth. 8. Making Hyperion. 9. The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Scientific objectives and implementation. 10. A Survey of Numerical Solutions to the Coagulation. 11. Probability of detecting a planetary companion during a microlensing event. 12. Dynamics and origin of the 2:l orbital resonances of the GJ876 planets. 13. Planetary Interior Structure Revealed by Spin Dynamics. 14. A primordial origin of the Laplace relation among the Galilean Satellites. 15. A procedure for determining the nature of Mercury's core. 16. Secular evolution of hierarchical planetary systems. 17. Tidally induced volcanism. 18. Extrasolar planets and mean motion resonances. 19. Comparison of a ground-based microlensing search for planets with a search from space.

  11. Characterizing K2 Planetary Systems Orbiting Cool Dwarfs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dressing, Courtney D.; Newton, Elisabeth R.; Schlieder, Joshua; Vanderburg, Andrew; Charbonneau, David; Knutson, Heather; K2C2

    2017-01-01

    The NASA K2 mission is using the repurposed Kepler spacecraft to search for transiting planets in multiple fields along the ecliptic plane. K2 observes 10,000 - 30,000 stars in each field for roughly 80 days, which is too short to observe multiple transits of planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars, but long enough to detect potentially habitable planets orbiting low-mass dwarfs. Accordingly, M and K dwarfs are frequently nominated as K2 Guest Observer targets and K2 has already observed significantly more low-mass stars than the original Kepler mission. While the K2 data are therefore an enticing resource for studying the properties and frequency of planetary systems orbiting low-mass stars, many K2 cool dwarfs are not well-characterized. We are refining the properties of K2 planetary systems orbiting cool dwarfs by acquiring medium-resolution NIR spectra with SpeX on the IRTF and TripleSpec on the Palomar 200". In our initial sample of 144 potential cool dwarfs hosting candidate planetary systems detected by K2, we noted a high contamination rate from giants (16%) and reddened hotter dwarfs (31%). After employing empirically-based relations to determine the temperatures, radii, masses, luminosities, and metallicities of K2 planet candidate host stars, we found that our new cool dwarf radius estimates were 10-40% larger than the initial values, indicating that the radii of the associated planet candidates were also underestimated. Refining the stellar parameters allows us to identify astrophysical false positives and better constrain the radii and insolation flux environments of bona fide transiting planets. I will present our resulting catalog of system properties and highlight the most attractive K2 planets for radial velocity mass measurement and atmospheric characterization with Spitzer, HST, JWST, and the next generation of extremely large ground- and space-based telescopes. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the NASA Sagan Fellowship Program

  12. Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) for Planetary Atmospheric Studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bocanegra Bahamon, Tatiana; Cimo, Giuseppe; Duev, Dmitry; Gurvits, Leonid; Molera Calves, Guifre; Pogrebenko, Sergei

    2015-04-01

    The Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) is a technique that allows the determination of the radial velocity and lateral coordinates of planetary spacecraft with very high accuracy (Duev, 2012). The setup of the experiment consists of several ground stations from the European VLBI Network (EVN) located around the globe, which simultaneously perform Doppler tracking of a spacecraft carrier radio signal, and are subsequently processed in a VLBI-style in phase referencing mode. Because of the accurate examination of the changes in phase and amplitude of the radio signal propagating from the spacecraft to the multiple stations on Earth, the PRIDE technique can be used for several fields of planetary research, among which planetary atmospheric studies, gravimetry and ultra-precise celestial mechanics of planetary systems. In the study at hand the application of this technique for planetary atmospheric investigations is demonstrated. As a test case, radio occultation experiments were conducted with PRIDE having as target ESA's Venus Express, during different observing sessions with multiple ground stations in April 2012 and March 2014. Once each of the stations conducts the observation, the raw data is delivered to the correlation center at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) located in the Netherlands. The signals are processed with a high spectral resolution and phase detection software package from which Doppler observables of each station are derived. Subsequently the Doppler corrected signals are correlated to derive the VLBI observables. These two sets of observables are used for precise orbit determination. The reconstructed orbit along with the Doppler observables are used as input for the radio occultation processing software, which consists of mainly two modules, the geometrical optics module and the ray tracing inversion module, from which vertical density profiles, and subsequently, temperature and pressure profiles of Venus

  13. Tracking Advanced Planetary Systems (TAPAS) with HARPS-N . I. A multiple planetary system around the red giant star TYC 1422-614-1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niedzielski, A.; Villaver, E.; Wolszczan, A.; Adamów, M.; Kowalik, K.; Maciejewski, G.; Nowak, G.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Deka, B.; Adamczyk, M.

    2015-01-01

    Context. Stars that have evolved off the main sequence are crucial for expanding the frontiers of knowledge on exoplanets toward higher stellar masses and for constraining star-planet interaction mechanisms. These stars have an intrinsic activity, however, which complicates the interpretation of precise radial velocity (RV) measurements, and therefore they are often avoided in planet searches. Over the past ten years, we have monitored about 1000 evolved stars for RV variations in search for low-mass companions under the Penn State - Toruń Centre for Astronomy Planet Search program with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Selected prospective candidates that required higher RV precision measurements have been followed with HARPS-N at the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. Aims: We aim to detect planetary systems around evolved stars, to be able to build sound statistics on the frequency and intrinsic nature of these systems, and to deliver in-depth studies of selected planetary systems with evidence of star-planet interaction processes. Methods: We obtained 69 epochs of precise RV measurements for TYC 1422-614-1 collected over 3651 days with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and 17 epochs of ultra-precise HARPS-N data collected over 408 days. We complemented these RV data with photometric time-series from the All Sky Automatic Survey archive. Results: We report the discovery of a multiple planetary system around the evolved K2 giant star TYC 1422-614-1. The system orbiting the 1.15 M⊙ star is composed of a planet with mass msini = 2.5 MJ in a 0.69 AU orbit, and a planet or brown dwarf with msini = 10 MJ in an orbit of 1.37 AU. The multiple planetary system orbiting TYC 1422-614-1 is the first finding of the TAPAS project, a HARPS-N monitoring of evolved planetary systems identified with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University

  14. Honey I Shrunk the Planetary System Artist Concept

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2012-01-11

    This artist conception compares the KOI-961 planetary system to Jupiter and the largest four of its many moons. The KOI-961 planetary system hosts the three smallest planets known to orbit a star beyond our sun.

  15. The Planetary Data System Web Catalog Interface--Another Use of the Planetary Data System Data Model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hughes, S.; Bernath, A.

    1995-01-01

    The Planetary Data System Data Model consists of a set of standardized descriptions of entities within the Planetary Science Community. These can be real entities in the space exploration domain such as spacecraft, instruments, and targets; conceptual entities such as data sets, archive volumes, and data dictionaries; or the archive data products such as individual images, spectrum, series, and qubes.

  16. Solar System Observations with JWST

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Norwood, James; Hammel, Heidi; Milam, Stefanie; Stansberry, John; Lunine, Jonathan; Chanover, Nancy; Hines, Dean; Sonneborn, George; Tiscareno, Matthew; Brown, Michael; hide

    2014-01-01

    The James Webb Space Telescope will enable a wealth of new scientific investigations in the near- and mid- infrared, with sensitivity and spatial-spectral resolution greatly surpassing its predecessors. In this paper, we focus upon Solar System science facilitated by JWST, discussing the most current information available concerning JWST instrument properties and observing techniques relevant to planetary science. We also present numerous example observing scenarios for a wide variety of Solar System targets to illustrate the potential of JWST science to the Solar System community. This paper updates and supersedes the Solar System white paper published by the JWST Project in 2010 (Lunine et al., 2010). It is based both on that paper and on a workshop held at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Reno, NV in 2012.

  17. Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kane, Stephen R.; Waters, Miranda A.; Von Braun, Kaspar

    A critical component of exoplanetary studies is an exhaustive characterization of the host star, from which the planetary properties are frequently derived. Of particular value are the radius, temperature, and luminosity, which are key stellar parameters for studies of transit and habitability science. Here we present the results of new observations of Wolf 1061, known to host three super-Earths. Our observations from the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy interferometric array provide a direct stellar radius measurement of 0.3207±0.0088 R{sub ⊙}, from which we calculate the effective temperature and luminosity using spectral energy distribution models. We obtained 7 yr ofmore » precise, automated photometry that reveals the correct stellar rotation period of 89.3±1.8 days, finds no evidence of photometric transits, and confirms that the radial velocity signals are not due to stellar activity. Finally, our stellar properties are used to calculate the extent of the Habitable Zone (HZ) for the Wolf 1061 system, for which the optimistic boundaries are 0.09–0.23 au. Our simulations of the planetary orbital dynamics show that the eccentricity of the HZ planet oscillates to values as high as ∼0.15 as it exchanges angular momentum with the other planets in the system.« less

  18. Polarimetry Microlensing of Close-in Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sajadian, Sedighe; Hundertmark, Markus

    2017-04-01

    A close-in giant planetary (CGP) system has a net polarization signal whose value varies depending on the orbital phase of the planet. This polarization signal is either caused by the stellar occultation or by reflected starlight from the surface of the orbiting planet. When the CGP system is located in the Galactic bulge, its polarization signal becomes too weak to be measured directly. One method for detecting and characterizing these weak polarization signatures due to distant CGP systems is gravitational microlensing. In this work, we focus on potential polarimetric observations of highly magnified microlensing events of CGP systems. When the lens is passing directly in front of the source star with its planetary companion, the polarimetric signature caused by the transiting planet is magnified. As a result, some distinct features in the polarimetry and light curves are produced. In the same way, microlensing amplifies the reflection-induced polarization signal. While the planet-induced perturbations are magnified whenever these polarimetric or photometric deviations vanish for a moment, the corresponding magnification factor of the polarization component(s) is related to the planet itself. Finding these exact times in the planet-induced perturbations helps us to characterize the planet. In order to evaluate the observability of such systems through polarimetric or photometric observations of high-magnification microlensing events, we simulate these events by considering confirmed CGP systems as their source stars and conclude that the efficiency for detecting the planet-induced signal with the state-of-the-art polarimetric instrument (FORS2/VLT) is less than 0.1%. Consequently, these planet-induced polarimetry perturbations can likely be detected under favorable conditions by the high-resolution and short-cadence polarimeters of the next generation.

  19. Carbon Chemistry in Planetary Nebulae: Observations of the CCH Radical

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Deborah Rose; Ziurys, Lucy

    2015-08-01

    The presence of infrared (IR) emission features observed in interstellar environments is consistent with models that suggest they are produced by complex organic species containing both aliphatic and aromatic components (Kwok & Zhang 2011). These IR signals change drastically over the course of the AGB, proto-planetary, and planetary nebulae phases, and this dramatic variation is yet to be understood. The radical CCH is a potential tracer of carbon chemistry and its evolution in dying stars. CCH is very common in carbon-rich circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars, and is present in the proto-planetary nebulae. It has also been observed at one position in the very young planetary nebula, NGC 7027 (Hasegawa & Kwok 2001), as well as at one position in the Helix Nebula (Tenenbaum et al. 2009) - a dense clump east of the central white dwarf. In order to further probe the chemistry of carbon, we have initiated a search for CCH in eight PNe previously detected in HCN and HCO+ from a survey conducted by Schmidt and Ziurys, using the telescopes of the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO). Observations of the N=1→0 transition of CCH at 87 GHz have been conducted using the new ARO 12-m ALMA prototype antenna, while measurements of the N=3→2 transition at 262 GHz are being made with the ARO Sub-Millimeter Telescope (SMT). We also have extended our study in the Helix Nebula. Thus far, CCH has been detected at 8 new positions across the Helix Nebula, and appears to be widespread in this source. The radical has also been identified in K4-47, M3-28, K3-17, and K3-58. These sources represent a range of nebular ages. Additional observations are currently being conducted for CCH in other PNe, as well as abundance analyses. These results will be presented.

  20. Can The Periods of Some Extra-Solar Planetary Systems be Quantized?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    El Fady Morcos, Abd

    A simple formula was derived before by Morcos (2013 ), to relate the quantum numbers of planetary systems and their periods. This formula is applicable perfectly for the solar system planets, and some extra-solar planets , of stars of approximately the same masses like the Sun. This formula has been used to estimate the periods of some extra-solar planet of known quantum numbers. The used quantum numbers were calculated previously by other authors. A comparison between the observed and estimated periods, from the given formula has been done. The differences between the observed and calculated periods for the extra-solar systems have been calculated and tabulated. It is found that there is an error of the range of 10% The same formula has been also used to find the quantum numbers, of some known periods, exo-planet. Keywords: Quantization; Periods; Extra-Planetary; Extra-Solar Planet REFERENCES [1] Agnese, A. G. and Festa, R. “Discretization on the Cosmic Scale Inspirred from the Old Quantum Mechanics,” 1998. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9807186 [2] Agnese, A. G. and Festa, R. “Discretizing ups-Andro- medae Planetary System,” 1999. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9910534. [3] Barnothy, J. M. “The Stability of the Solar Systemand of Small Stellar Systems,” Proceedings of the IAU Sympo-sium 62, Warsaw, 5-8 September 1973, pp. 23-31. [4] Morcos, A.B. , “Confrontation between Quantized Periods of Some Extra-Solar Planetary Systems and Observations”, International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2013, 3, 28-32. [5] Nottale, L. “Fractal Space-Time and Microphysics, To-wards a Theory of Scale Relativity,” World Scientific, London, 1994. [6] Nottale , L., “Scale-Relativity and Quantization of Extra- Solar Planetary Systems,” Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 315, 1996, pp. L9-L12 [7] Nottale, L., Schumacher, G. and Gay, J. “Scale-Relativity and Quantization of the Solar Systems,” Astronomy & Astrophysics letters, Vol. 322, 1997, pp. 1018-10 [8

  1. Discovery of Planetary Systems With SIM

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Butler, Paul R.; Frink, Sabine; Fischer, Debra; Oppenheimer, Ben; Monet, David G.; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Scargle, Jeffrey D.

    2004-01-01

    We are witnessing the birth of a new observational science: the discovery and characterization of extrasolar planetary systems. In the past five years, over 70 extrasolar planets have been discovered by precision Doppler surveys, most by members of this SIM team. We are using the data base of information gleaned from our Doppler survey to choose the best targets for a new SIN planet search. In the same way that our Doppler database now serves SIM, our team will return a reconnaissance database to focus Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) into a more productive, efficient mission.

  2. Upper atmospheric planetary-wave and gravity-wave observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Justus, C. G.; Woodrum, A.

    1973-01-01

    Previously collected data on atmospheric pressure, density, temperature and winds between 25 and 200 km from sources including Meteorological Rocket Network data, ROBIN falling sphere data, grenade release and pitot tube data, meteor winds, chemical release winds, satellite data, and others were analyzed by a daily-difference method, and results on the magnitude of atmospheric perturbations interpreted as gravity waves and planetary waves are presented. Traveling planetary-wave contributions in the 25-85 km range were found to have significant height and latitudinal variation. It was found that observed gravity-wave density perturbations and wind are related to one another in the manner predicted by gravity-wave theory. It was determined that, on the average, gravity-wave energy deposition or reflection occurs at all altitudes except the 55-75 km region of the mesosphere.

  3. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Origin of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2004-01-01

    The session "Origin of Planetary Systems" included the following reports: (12753) Povenmire - Standard Comparison Small Main Belt Asteroid?; Gravitational Frequencies of Extra-Solar Planets; 'Jumping Jupiters' in Binary Star Systems; Hermes, Asteroid 2002 SY50 and the Northern Cetids - No Link Found!; What Kind of Accretion Model is Required for the Solar System; and Use of an Orbital Phase Curve of Extrasolar Planet for Specification of its Mass.

  4. The Birth of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Young, Richard E. (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    An overview of current theories of star and planet formation is presented. These models are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments, and they predict that rocky planets should form around most single stars, although it is possible that in some cases such planets are lost to orbital decay within the protoplanetary disk. The frequency of formation of gas giant planets is more difficult to predict theoretically. Terrestrial planets are believed to grow via pairwise accretion until the spacing of planetary orbits becomes large enough that the configuration is stable for the age of the system. Giant planets begin their growth like terrestrial planets, but they become massive enough that they are able to accumulate substantial amounts of gas before the protoplanetary disk dissipates.

  5. The Birth of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissaur, Jack L.

    1997-01-01

    An overview of current theories of star and planet formation is presented. These models are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments. They predict that rocky planets should form around most single stars, although it is possible that in some cases such planets are lost to orbital decay within the protoplanetary disk. The frequency of formation of gas giant planets is more difficult to predict theoretically. Terrestrial planets are believed to grow via pairwise accretion until the spacing of planetary orbits becomes large enough that the configuration is stable for the age of the system. Giant planets begin their growth like terrestrial planets, but they become massive enough that they are able to accumulate substantial amounts of gas before the protoplanetary disk dissipates.

  6. The critical binary star separation for a planetary system origin of white dwarf pollution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Veras, Dimitri; Xu, Siyi; Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto

    2018-01-01

    The atmospheres of between one quarter and one half of observed single white dwarfs in the Milky Way contain heavy element pollution from planetary debris. The pollution observed in white dwarfs in binary star systems is, however, less clear, because companion star winds can generate a stream of matter which is accreted by the white dwarf. Here, we (i) discuss the necessity or lack thereof of a major planet in order to pollute a white dwarf with orbiting minor planets in both single and binary systems, and (ii) determine the critical binary separation beyond which the accretion source is from a planetary system. We hence obtain user-friendly functions relating this distance to the masses and radii of both stars, the companion wind, and the accretion rate on to the white dwarf, for a wide variety of published accretion prescriptions. We find that for the majority of white dwarfs in known binaries, if pollution is detected, then that pollution should originate from planetary material.

  7. On the observability of resonant structures in planetesimal disks due to planetary migration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reche, R.; Beust, H.; Augereau, J.-C.; Absil, O.

    2008-03-01

    Context: The observed clumpy structures in debris disks are commonly interpreted as particles trapped in mean-motion resonances with an unseen exo-planet. Populating the resonances requires a migrating process of either the particles (spiraling inward due to drag forces) or the planet (moving outward). Because the drag time-scale in resolved debris disks is generally long compared to the collisional time-scale, the planet migration scenario might be more likely, but this model has so far only been investigated for planets on circular orbits. Aims: We present a thorough study of the impact of a migrating planet on a planetesimal disk, by exploring a broad range of masses and eccentricities for the planet. We discuss the sensitivity of the structures generated in debris disks to the basic planet parameters. Methods: We perform many N-body numerical simulations, using the symplectic integrator SWIFT, taking into account the gravitational influence of the star and the planet on massless test particles. A constant migration rate is assumed for the planet. Results: The effect of planetary migration on the trapping of particles in mean motion resonances is found to be very sensitive to the initial eccentricity of the planet and of the planetesimals. A planetary eccentricity as low as 0.05 is enough to smear out all the resonant structures, except for the most massive planets. The planetesimals also initially have to be on orbits with a mean eccentricity of less than than 0.1 in order to keep the resonant clumps visible. Conclusions: This numerical work extends previous analytical studies and provides a collection of disk images that may help in interpreting the observations of structures in debris disks. Overall, it shows that stringent conditions must be fulfilled to obtain observable resonant structures in debris disks. Theoretical models of the origin of planetary migration will therefore have to explain how planetary systems remain in a suitable configuration to

  8. Scale relativity and hierarchical structuring of planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galopeau, P. H. M.; Nottale, L.; da Rocha, D.; Tran Minh, N.

    2003-04-01

    The theory of scale relativity, applied to macroscopic gravitational systems like planetary systems, allows one to predict quantization laws of several key parameters characterizing those systems (distance between planets and central star, obliquity, eccentricity...) which are organized in a hierarchical way. In the framework of the scale relativity approach, one demonstrates that the motion (at relatively large time-scales) of the bodies in planetary systems, described in terms of fractal geodesic trajectories, is governed by a Schrödinger-like equation. Preferential orbits are predicted in terms of probability density peaks with semi-major axis given by: a_n = GMn^2/w^2 (M is the mass of the central star and w is a velocity close to 144 km s-1 in the case of our inner solar system and of the presently observed exoplanets). The velocity of the planet orbiting at this distance satisfies the relation v_n = w/n. Moreover, the mass distribution of the planets in our solar system can be accounted for in this model. These predictions are in good agreement with the observed values of the actual orbital parameters. Furthermore, the exoplanets which have been recently discovered around nearby stars also follow the same law in terms of the same constant in a highly significant statistical way. The theory of scale relativity also predicts structures for the obliquities and inclinations of the planets and satellites: the probability density of their distribution between 0 and pi are expected to display peaks at particular angles θ_k = kpi/n. A statistical agreement is obtained for our solar system with n=7. Another prediction concerns the distribution of the planets eccentricities e. The theory foresees a quantization law e = k/n where k is an integer and n is the quantum number that characterizes semi-major axes. The presently known exoplanet eccentricities are compatible with this theoretical prediction. Finally, although all these planetary systems may look very

  9. Planetary camera observations of the double nucleus of M31

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lauer, Tod R.; Faber, S. M.; Groth, Edward J.; Shaya, Edward J.; Campbell, Bel; Code, Arthur; Currie, Douglas G.; Baum, William A.; Ewald, S. P.; Hester, J. J.

    1993-01-01

    HST Planetary Camera images obtained in the V and I band for M31 show its inner nucleus to consist of two components that are separated by 0.49 arcsec. The nuclear component with lower surface brightness closely coincides with the bulge photocenter and is argued to be at the kinematic center of the galaxy. It is surmised that, if dust absorption generates the asymmetric nuclear morphology observed, the dust grain size must either be exceptionally large, or the dust optical depth must be extremely high; the higher surface-brightness and off-center nuclear component may alternatively be a separate stellar system.

  10. Planetary programs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mills, R. A.; Bourke, R. D.

    1985-01-01

    The goals of the NASA planetary exploration program are to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system and the earth, and the extent and nature of near-earth space resources. To accomplish this, a number of missions have been flown to the planets, and more are in active preparation or in the planning stage. This paper describes the current and planned planetary exploration program starting with the spacecraft now in flight (Pioneers and Voyagers), those in preparation for launch this decade (Galileo, Magellan, and Mars Observer), and those recommended by the Solar System Exploration Committee for the future. The latter include a series of modest objective Observer missions, a more ambitious set of Mariner Mark IIs, and the very challenging but scientifically rewarding sample returns.

  11. Observation-based estimation of aerosol-induced reduction of planetary boundary layer height

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zou, Jun; Sun, Jianning; Ding, Aijun; Wang, Minghuai; Guo, Weidong; Fu, Congbin

    2017-09-01

    Radiative aerosols are known to influence the surface energy budget and hence the evolution of the planetary boundary layer. In this study, we develop a method to estimate the aerosol-induced reduction in the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) based on two years of ground-based measurements at a site, the Station for Observing Regional Processes of the Earth System (SORPES), at Nanjing University, China, and radiosonde data from the meteorological station of Nanjing. The observations show that increased aerosol loads lead to a mean decrease of 67.1 W m-2 for downward shortwave radiation (DSR) and a mean increase of 19.2 W m-2 for downward longwave radiation (DLR), as well as a mean decrease of 9.6 Wm-2 for the surface sensible heat flux (SHF) in the daytime. The relative variations of DSR, DLR and SHF are shown as a function of the increment of column mass concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5). High aerosol loading can significantly increase the atmospheric stability in the planetary boundary layer during both daytime and nighttime. Based on the statistical relationship between SHF and PM2.5 column mass concentrations, the SHF under clean atmospheric conditions (same as the background days) is derived. In this case, the derived SHF, together with observed SHF, are then used to estimate changes in the PBLH related to aerosols. Our results suggest that the PBLH decreases more rapidly with increasing aerosol loading at high aerosol loading. When the daytime mean column mass concentration of PM2.5 reaches 200 mg m-2, the decrease in the PBLH at 1600 LST (local standard time) is about 450 m.

  12. A perception system for a planetary explorer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hebert, M.; Krotkov, E.; Kanade, T.

    1989-01-01

    To perform planetary exploration without human supervision, a complete autonomous robot must be able to model its environment and to locate itself while exploring its surroundings. For that purpose, the authors propose a modular perception system for an autonomous explorer. The perception system maintains a consistent internal representation of the observed terrain from multiple sensor views. The representation can be accessed from other modules through queries. The perception system is intended to be used by the Ambler, a six-legged vehicle being built at CMU. A partial implementation of the system using a range scanner is presented as well as experimental results on a testbed that includes the sensor, one computer-controlled leg, and obstacles on a sandy surface.

  13. Dynamical simulations of the HR8799 planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marshall, J.; Horner, J.; Carter, A.

    2010-10-01

    HR8799 is a young (20-160 Myr) A-dwarf main sequence star with a debris disc detected by IRAS (InfraRed Astronomical Satellite). In 2008, it was one of two stars around which exoplanets were directly imaged for the first time. The presence of three Jupiter-mass planets around HR8799 provoked much interest in modelling the dynamical stability of the system. Initial simulations indicated that the observed planetary architecture was unstable on timescales much shorter than the lifetime of the star (~105 yr). Subsequent models suggested that the system could be stable if the planets were locked in a 1:2:4 mutual mean motion resonance (MMR). In this work, we have examined the influence of varying orbital eccentricity and the semi-major axis on the stability of the three-planet system, through dynamical simulations using the MERCURY n-body integrator. We find that, in agreement with previous work on this system, the 1:2:4 MMR is the most stable planetary configuration, and that the system stability is dominated by the interaction between the inner pair of planets. In contrast to previous results, we find that with small eccentricities, the three-planet system can be stable for timescales comparable to the system lifetime and, potentially, much longer.

  14. Passage of a ''Nemesis''-like object through the planetary system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hills, J.G.

    1985-09-01

    The probability that passing stars could have perturbed the hypothetical stellar companion, Nemesis, into an orbit that penetrates the planetary system is about 15%. The planetary orbits crossed by Nemesis would become highly eccentric, and some would even become hyperbolic. If Nemesis ejects Jupiter from the solar system, the semimajor axis of the orbit of Nemesis would shrink down to a few hundred AU. The probability of any object in the inner edge of the Oort cloud at a semimajor axis of 2 x 10/sup 4/ AU having passed inside the orbit of Saturn is about 80%. The apparent lackmore » of damage to the planetary orbits implies a low probability of there being any objects more massive than 0.02 M/sub sun/ in the inner edge of the Oort comet cloud. However, several objects less massive than 0.01 M/sub sun/ or 10 Jupiter masses could pass through the planetary system from the Oort cloud without causing any significant damage to the planetary orbits. The lack of damage to the planetary system also requires that no black dwarf more massive than 0.05 M/sub sun/ has entered the planetary system from interstellar space.« less

  15. Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Embryos

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wetherill, George W.

    2002-01-01

    During the past decade, progress has been made by relating the 'standard model' for the formation of planetary systems to computational and observational advances. A significant contribution to this has been provided by this grant. The consequence of this is that the rigor of the physical modeling has improved considerably. This has identified discrepancies between the predictions of the standard model and recent observations of extrasolar planets. In some cases, the discrepancies can be resolved by recognition of the stochastic nature of the planetary formation process, leading to variations in the final state of a planetary system. In other cases, it seems more likely that there are major deficiencies in the standard model, requiring our identifying variations to the model that are not so strongly constrained to our Solar System.

  16. From Planetary Mapping to Map Production: Planetary Cartography as integral discipline in Planetary Sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nass, Andrea; van Gasselt, Stephan; Hargitai, Hendrik; Hare, Trent; Manaud, Nicolas; Karachevtseva, Irina; Kersten, Elke; Roatsch, Thomas; Wählisch, Marita; Kereszturi, Akos

    2016-04-01

    Cartography is one of the most important communication channels between users of spatial information and laymen as well as the open public alike. This applies to all known real-world objects located either here on Earth or on any other object in our Solar System. In planetary sciences, however, the main use of cartography resides in a concept called planetary mapping with all its various attached meanings: it can be (1) systematic spacecraft observation from orbit, i.e. the retrieval of physical information, (2) the interpretation of discrete planetary surface units and their abstraction, or it can be (3) planetary cartography sensu strictu, i.e., the technical and artistic creation of map products. As the concept of planetary mapping covers a wide range of different information and knowledge levels, aims associated with the concept of mapping consequently range from a technical and engineering focus to a scientific distillation process. Among others, scientific centers focusing on planetary cartography are the United State Geological Survey (USGS, Flagstaff), the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK, Moscow), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE, Hungary), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Berlin). The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the Commission Planetary Cartography within International Cartographic Association (ICA), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the WG IV/8 Planetary Mapping and Spatial Databases within International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and a range of other institutions contribute on definition frameworks in planetary cartography. Classical cartography is nowadays often (mis-)understood as a tool mainly rather than a scientific discipline and an art of communication. Consequently, concepts of information systems, mapping tools and cartographic frameworks are used interchangeably, and cartographic workflows and visualization of spatial information in thematic maps have often been

  17. Survival of habitable planets in unstable planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carrera, Daniel; Davies, Melvyn B.; Johansen, Anders

    2016-12-01

    Many observed giant planets lie on eccentric orbits. Such orbits could be the result of strong scatterings with other giant planets. The same dynamical instability that produces these scatterings may also cause habitable planets in interior orbits to become ejected, destroyed, or be transported out of the habitable zone. We say that a habitable planet has resilient habitability if it is able to avoid ejections and collisions and its orbit remains inside the habitable zone. Here we model the orbital evolution of rocky planets in planetary systems where giant planets become dynamically unstable. We measure the resilience of habitable planets as a function of the observed, present-day masses and orbits of the giant planets. We find that the survival rate of habitable planets depends strongly on the giant planet architecture. Equal-mass planetary systems are far more destructive than systems with giant planets of unequal masses. We also establish a link with observation; we find that giant planets with present-day eccentricities higher than 0.4 almost never have a habitable interior planet. For a giant planet with a present-day eccentricity of 0.2 and semimajor axis of 5 au orbiting a Sun-like star, 50 per cent of the orbits in the habitable zone are resilient to the instability. As semimajor axis increases and eccentricity decreases, a higher fraction of habitable planets survive and remain habitable. However, if the habitable planet has rocky siblings, there is a significant risk of rocky planet collisions that would sterilize the planet.

  18. Completing the Copernican Revolution: The search for other planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Black, David C.

    1995-01-01

    The past few decades have witnessed significant advances in our understanding of how stars form, and there has been an associated increase in our knowledge of conditions and phenomena in the early solar system. These have led to the formulation of a paradigm for the origin of the solar system that is sufficiently complete that its basic elements can be tested directly through observations. A simple, but profound, consequence of the paradigm is that most if not all stars should be accompanied by planetary systems. The accuracy of instruments that can be used in such searches has improved to the point that Jupiter-like companions to a number of nearby stars could be detected. However, the results to date are that no other planetary systems have been detected, and the absence of detection is becoming statistically significant, particularly as it relates to the existence of brown dwarf companions to main-sequence stars.

  19. PDS4: Developing the Next Generation Planetary Data System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Crichton, D.; Beebe, R.; Hughes, S.; Stein, T.; Grayzeck, E.

    2011-01-01

    The Planetary Data System (PDS) is in the midst of a major upgrade to its system. This upgrade is a critical modernization of the PDS as it prepares to support the future needs of both the mission and scientific community. It entails improvements to the software system and the data standards, capitalizing on newer, data system approaches. The upgrade is important not only for the purpose of capturing results from NASA planetary science missions, but also for improving standards and interoperability among international planetary science data archives. As the demands of the missions and science community increase, PDS is positioning itself to evolve and meet those demands.

  20. Planetary Data Systems (PDS) Imaging Node Atlas II

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stanboli, Alice; McAuley, James M.

    2013-01-01

    The Planetary Image Atlas (PIA) is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) that serves planetary imaging data to the science community and the general public. PIA also utilizes the USGS Unified Planetary Coordinate system (UPC) and the on-Mars map server. The Atlas was designed to provide the ability to search and filter through greater than 8 million planetary image files. This software is a three-tier Web application that contains a search engine backend (MySQL, JAVA), Web service interface (SOAP) between server and client, and a GWT Google Maps API client front end. This application allows for the search, retrieval, and download of planetary images and associated meta-data from the following missions: 2001 Mars Odyssey, Cassini, Galileo, LCROSS, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars Express, Magellan, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MESSENGER, Phoe nix, Viking Lander, Viking Orbiter, and Voyager. The Atlas utilizes the UPC to translate mission-specific coordinate systems into a unified coordinate system, allowing the end user to query across missions of similar targets. If desired, the end user can also use a mission-specific view of the Atlas. The mission-specific views rely on the same code base. This application is a major improvement over the initial version of the Planetary Image Atlas. It is a multi-mission search engine. This tool includes both basic and advanced search capabilities, providing a product search tool to interrogate the collection of planetary images. This tool lets the end user query information about each image, and ignores the data that the user has no interest in. Users can reduce the number of images to look at by defining an area of interest with latitude and longitude ranges.

  1. Hot planetary winds near a star: dynamics, wind-wind interactions, and observational signatures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carroll-Nellenback, Jonathan; Frank, Adam; Liu, Baowei; Quillen, Alice C.; Blackman, Eric G.; Dobbs-Dixon, Ian

    2017-04-01

    Signatures of 'evaporative' winds from exoplanets on short (hot) orbits around their host star have been observed in a number of systems. In this paper, we present global adaptive mesh refinement simulations that track the launching of the winds, their expansion through the circumstellar environment, and their interaction with a stellar wind. We focus on purely hydrodynamic flows including the anisotropy of the wind launching and explore the orbital/fluid dynamics of the resulting flows in detail. In particular, we find that a combination of the tidal and Coriolis forces strongly distorts the planetary 'Parker' wind creating 'up-orbit' and 'down-orbit' streams. We characterize the flows in terms of their orbital elements that change depending on their launch position on the planet. We find that the anisotropy in the atmospheric temperature leads to significant backflow on to the planet. The planetary wind interacts strongly with the stellar wind creating instabilities that may cause eventual deposition of planetary gas on to the star. We present synthetic observations of both transit and absorption line-structure for our simulations. For our initial conditions, we find that the orbiting wind material produces absorption signatures at significant distances from the planet and substantial orbit-to-orbit variability. Lyα absorption shows red- and blueshifted features out to 70 km s-1. Finally, using semi-analytic models we constrain the effect of radiation pressure, given the approximation of uniform stellar absorption.

  2. Planetary Rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tiscareno, Matthew S.

    Planetary rings are the only nearby astrophysical disks and the only disks that have been investigated by spacecraft (especially the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn). Although there are significant differences between rings and other disks, chiefly the large planet/ring mass ratio that greatly enhances the flatness of rings (aspect ratios as small as 10- 7), understanding of disks in general can be enhanced by understanding the dynamical processes observed at close range and in real time in planetary rings.We review the known ring systems of the four giant planets, as well as the prospects for ring systems yet to be discovered. We then review planetary rings by type. The A, B, and C rings of Saturn, plus the Cassini Division, comprise our solar system's only dense broad disk and host many phenomena of general application to disks including spiral waves, gap formation, self-gravity wakes, viscous overstability and normal modes, impact clouds, and orbital evolution of embedded moons. Dense narrow rings are found both at Uranus (where they comprise the main rings entirely) and at Saturn (where they are embedded in the broad disk) and are the primary natural laboratory for understanding shepherding and self-stability. Narrow dusty rings, likely generated by embedded source bodies, are surprisingly found to sport azimuthally confined arcs at Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter. Finally, every known ring system includes a substantial component of diffuse dusty rings.Planetary rings have shown themselves to be useful as detectors of planetary processes around them, including the planetary magnetic field and interplanetary impactors as well as the gravity of nearby perturbing moons. Experimental rings science has made great progress in recent decades, especially numerical simulations of self-gravity wakes and other processes but also laboratory investigations of coefficient of restitution and spectroscopic ground truth. The age of self-sustained ring systems is a matter of

  3. Urey prize lecture: On the diversity of plausible planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, J. J.

    1995-01-01

    Models of planet formation and of the orbital stability of planetary systems are used to predict the variety of planetary and satellite systems that may be present within our galaxy. A new approximate global criterion for orbital stability of planetary systems based on an extension of the local resonance overlap criterion is proposed. This criterion implies that at least some of Uranus' small inner moons are significantly less massive than predicted by estimates based on Voyager volumes and densities assumed to equal that of Miranda. Simple calculations (neglecting planetary gravity) suggest that giant planets which acrete substantial amounts of gas while their envelopes are extremely distended ultimately rotate rapidly in the prgrade direction.

  4. Mini Planetary System Artist Concept

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2012-01-11

    This artist concept, based on data from NASA Kepler mission and ground-based telescopes, depicts an itsy bitsy planetary system -- so compact, in fact, that it more like Jupiter and its moons than a star and its planets.

  5. Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazio, T. Joseph W.; Shkolnik, Evgenya; Hallinan, Gregg; Planetary Habitability Study Team

    2016-06-01

    The W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) sponsored the Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability Study to review the state of knowledge of extrasolar planetary magnetic fields and the prospects for their detection. There were multiple motivations for this Study. Planetary-scale magnetic fields are a window to a planet's interior and provide shielding of the planet's atmosphere. The Earth, Mercury, Ganymede, and the giant planets of the solar system all contain internal dynamo currents that generate planetary-scale magnetic fields. In turn, these internal dynamo currents arise from differential rotation, convection, compositional dynamics, or a combination of these in objects' interiors. If coupled to an energy source, such as the incident kinetic or magnetic energy from the solar wind or an orbiting satellite, a planet's magnetic field can produce intense electron cyclotron masers in its magnetic polar regions. The most well known example of this process in the solar system is the Jovian decametric emission, but all of the giant planets and the Earth contain similar electron cyclotron masers within their magnetospheres. Extrapolated to extrasolar planets, the remote detection of the magnetic field of an extrasolar planet would provide a means of obtaining constraints on the thermal state, composition, and dynamics of its interior--all of which will be difficult to determine by other means--as well as improved understanding of the basic planetary dynamo process. This report presents the findings from the Study, including potential mission concepts that emerged and future work in both modeling and observations. There was also an identification of that radio wavelength observations would likely be key to making significant progress in this field. The entire Study program would not have been possible without the generous support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We thank Michele Judd, Tom Prince, and the staff of the W. M. Keck Institute for

  6. Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pudritz, Ralph; Higgs, Paul; Stone, Jonathon

    2013-01-01

    Preface; Part I. Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life: 1. Observations of extrasolar planetary systems Shay Zucker; 2. The atmospheres of extrasolar planets L. Jeremy Richardson and Sara Seager; 3. Terrestrial planet formation Edward Thommes; 4. Protoplanetary disks, amino acids and the genetic code Paul Higgs and Ralph Pudritz; 5. Emergent phenomena in biology: the origin of cellular life David Deamer; Part II. Life on Earth: 6. Extremophiles: defining the envelope for the search for life in the Universe Lynn Rothschild; 7. Hyperthermophilic life on Earth - and on Mars? Karl Stetter; 8. Phylogenomics: how far back in the past can we go? Henner Brinkmann, Denis Baurain and Hervé Philippe; 9. Horizontal gene transfer, gene histories and the root of the tree of life Olga Zhaxybayeva and J. Peter Gogarten; 10. Evolutionary innovation versus ecological incumbency Adolf Seilacher; 11. Gradual origins for the Metazoans Alexandra Pontefract and Jonathan Stone; Part III. Life in the Solar System?: 12. The search for life on Mars Chris McKay; 13. Life in the dark dune spots of Mars: a testable hypothesis Eörs Szathmary, Tibor Ganti, Tamas Pocs, Andras Horvath, Akos Kereszturi, Szaniszlo Berzci and Andras Sik; 14. Titan: a new astrobiological vision from the Cassini-Huygens data François Raulin; 15. Europa, the Ocean Moon: tides, permeable ice, and life Richard Greenberg; Index.

  7. Planetary Rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Esposito, Larry W.

    2011-07-01

    Preface; 1. Introduction: the allure of ringed planets; 2. Studies of planetary rings 1610-2004; 3. Diversity of planetary rings; 4. Individual ring particles and their collisions; 5. Large-scale ring evolution; 6. Moons confine and sculpt rings; 7. Explaining ring phenomena; 8. N-Body simulations; 9. Stochastic models; 10. Age and evolution of rings; 11. Saturn's mysterious F ring; 12. Neptune's partial rings; 13. Jupiter's ring-moon system after Galileo; 14. Ring photometry; 15. Dusty rings; 16. Cassini observations; 17. Summary: the big questions; Glossary; References; Index.

  8. The Search for Young Planetary Systems And the Evolution of Young Stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Beichman, Charles A.; Boden, Andrew; Ghez, Andrea; Hartman, Lee W.; Hillenbrand, Lynn; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Simon, Michael J.; Stauffer, John R.; Velusamy, Thangasamy

    2004-01-01

    The Space Interferometer Mission (SIM) will provide a census of planetary systems by con- ducting a broad survey of 2,000 stars that will be sensitive to the presence of planets with masses as small as approx. 15 Earth masses (1 Uranus mass) and a deep survey of approx. 250 of the nearest, stars with a mass limit of approx.3 Earth masses. The broad survey will include stars spanning a wide range of ages, spectral types, metallicity, and other important parameters. Within this larger context, the Young Stars and Planets Key Project will study approx. 200 stars with ages from 1 Myr to 100 Myr to understand the formation and dynamical evolution of gas giant planets. The SIM Young Stars and Planets Project will investigate both the frequency of giant planet formation and the early dynamical history of planetary systems. We will gain insight into how common the basic architecture of our solar system is compared with recently discovered systems with close-in giant planets by examining 200 of the nearest (less than 150 pc) and youngest (1-100 Myr) solar-type stars for planets. The sensitivity of the survey for stars located 140 pc away is shown in the planet mass-separation plane. We expect to find anywhere from 10 (assuming that only the presently known fraction of stars. 5-7%, has planets) to 200 (all young stars have planets) planetary systems. W-e have set our sensitivity threshold to ensure the detection of Jupiter-mass planets in the critical orbital range of 1 to 5 AU. These observations, when combined with the results of planetary searches of mature stars, will allow us to test theories of planetary formation and early solar system evolution. By searching for planets around pre-main sequence stars carefully selected to span an age range from 1 to 100 Myr, we will learn a t what epoch and with what frequency giant planets are found at the water-ice snowline where they are expected to form. This will provide insight into the physical mechanisms by which planets form

  9. Planetary Magnetism

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Connerney, J. E. P.

    2007-01-01

    The chapter on Planetary Magnetism by Connerney describes the magnetic fields of the planets, from Mercury to Neptune, including the large satellites (Moon, Ganymede) that have or once had active dynamos. The chapter describes the spacecraft missions and observations that, along with select remote observations, form the basis of our knowledge of planetary magnetic fields. Connerney describes the methods of analysis used to characterize planetary magnetic fields, and the models used to represent the main field (due to dynamo action in the planet's interior) and/or remnant magnetic fields locked in the planet's crust, where appropriate. These observations provide valuable insights into dynamo generation of magnetic fields, the structure and composition of planetary interiors, and the evolution of planets.

  10. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Origin of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2004-01-01

    The session titled Origin of Planetary Systems" included the following reports:Convective Cooling of Protoplanetary Disks and Rapid Giant Planet Formation; When Push Comes to Shove: Gap-opening, Disk Clearing and the In Situ Formation of Giant Planets; Late Injection of Radionuclides into Solar Nebula Analogs in Orion; Growth of Dust Particles and Accumulation of Centimeter-sized Objects in the Vicinity of a Pressure enhanced Region of a Solar Nebula; Fast, Repeatable Clumping of Solid Particles in Microgravity ; Chondrule Formation by Current Sheets in Protoplanetary Disks; Radial Migration of Phyllosilicates in the Solar Nebula; Accretion of the Outer Planets: Oligarchy or Monarchy?; Resonant Capture of Irregular Satellites by a Protoplanet ; On the Final Mass of Giant Planets ; Predicting the Atmospheric Composition of Extrasolar Giant Planets; Overturn of Unstably Stratified Fluids: Implications for the Early Evolution of Planetary Mantles; and The Evolution of an Impact-generated Partially-vaporized Circumplanetary Disk.

  11. The Past, Present, and Future of Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vanderburg, Andrew

    2017-01-01

    We are searching for planets using the Kepler spacecraft in its extended K2 mission. K2 data processing is more challenging than Kepler, but new techniques have permitted the discovery of hundreds of planet candidates. Our discoveries are yielding intriguing insights about the past, present, and future of planetary systems -- that is, the history of how planets might form and migrate, their present-day characteristics, and the ultimate fate of planetary systems. I will discuss what we have learned, in particular from the discovery of a hot Jupiter with close planetary companions, planets orbiting nearby bright stars, and a disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

  12. Analogs from LEO: Mapping Earth Observations to Planetary Science & Astrobiology. (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hand, K. P.; Painter, T. H.

    2010-12-01

    If, as Charles Lyell articulated ‘the present is the key to the past’ for terrestrial geology, then perhaps by extension the Earth, our planet, is the key to understanding other planets. This is the basic premise behind planetary analogs. Many planetary science missions, however, utilize orbiters and are therefore constrained to remote sensing. This is the reverse of how we developed our understanding of Earth’s environments; remote sensing is a relatively new tool for understanding environments and processes on Earth. Here we present several cases and comparisons between Earth’s cryosphere and icy worlds of the outer Solar System (e.g. Europa, Titan, and Enceladus), where much of our knowledge is limited to remote observations (the sole exception being the Huygens probe to Titan). Three regions are considered: glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, the permafrost lakes of Alaska’s North Slope, and spreading centers of the ocean floor. Two key issues are examined: 1) successes and limitations for understanding processes that shape icy worlds, and 2) successes and limitations for assessing the habitability of icy worlds from orbit. Finally, technological considerations for future orbiting mission to icy worlds are presented.

  13. Planet-Planet Scattering in Planetesimal Disks. II. Predictions for Outer Extrasolar Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raymond, Sean N.; Armitage, Philip J.; Gorelick, Noel

    2010-03-01

    We develop an idealized dynamical model to predict the typical properties of outer extrasolar planetary systems, at radii comparable to the Jupiter-to-Neptune region of the solar system. The model is based upon the hypothesis that dynamical evolution in outer planetary systems is controlled by a combination of planet-planet scattering and planetary interactions with an exterior disk of small bodies ("planetesimals"). Our results are based on 5000 long duration N-body simulations that follow the evolution of three planets from a few to 10 AU, together with a planetesimal disk containing 50 M ⊕ from 10 to 20 AU. For large planet masses (M >~ M Sat), the model recovers the observed eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets. For lower-mass planets, the range of outcomes in models with disks is far greater than that which is seen in isolated planet-planet scattering. Common outcomes include strong scattering among massive planets, sudden jumps in eccentricity due to resonance crossings driven by divergent migration, and re-circularization of scattered low-mass planets in the outer disk. We present the distributions of the eccentricity and inclination that result, and discuss how they vary with planet mass and initial system architecture. In agreement with other studies, we find that the currently observed eccentricity distribution (derived primarily from planets at a <~ 3 AU) is consistent with isolated planet-planet scattering. We explain the observed mass dependence—which is in the opposite sense from that predicted by the simplest scattering models—as a consequence of strong correlations between planet masses in the same system. At somewhat larger radii, initial planetary mass correlations and disk effects can yield similar modest changes to the eccentricity distribution. Nonetheless, strong damping of eccentricity for low-mass planets at large radii appears to be a secure signature of the dynamical influence of disks. Radial velocity measurements capable

  14. Ancillary Data Services of NASA's Planetary Data System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Acton, C.

    1994-01-01

    JPL's Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) has primary responsibility for design and implementation of the SPICE ancillary information system, supporting a wide range of space science mission design, observation planning and data analysis functions/activities. NAIF also serves as the geometry and ancillary data node of the Planetary Data System (PDS). As part of the PDS, NAIF archives SPICE and other ancillary data produced by flight projects. NAIF then distributes these data, and associated data access software and high-level tools, to researchers funded by NASA's Office of Space Science. Support for a broader user community is also offered to the extent resources permit. This paper describes the SPICE system and customer support offered by NAIF.

  15. Extrasolar Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ksanfomaliti, L. V.

    2000-11-01

    The discovery of planetary systems around alien stars is an outstanding achievement of recent years. The idea that the Solar System may be representative of planetary systems in the Galaxy in general develops upon the knowledge, current until the last decade of the 20th century, that it is the only object of its kind. Studies of the known planets gave rise to a certain stereotype in theoretical research. Therefore, the discovery of exoplanets, which are so different from objects of the Solar System, alters our basic notions concerning the physics and very criteria of normal planets. A substantial factor in the history of the Solar System was the formation of Jupiter. Two waves of meteorite bombardment played an important role in that history. Ultimately there arose a stable low-entropy state of the Solar System, in which Jupiter and the other giants in stable orbits protect the inner planets from impacts by dangerous celestial objects, reducing this danger by many orders of magnitude. There are even variants of the anthropic principle maintaining that life on Earth owes its genesis and development to Jupiter. Some 20 companions more or less similar to Jupiter in mass and a few ``infrared dwarfs,'' have been found among the 500 solar-type stars belonging to the main sequence. Approximately half of the exoplanets discovered are of the ``hot-Jupiter'' type. These are giants, sometimes of a mass several times that of Jupiter, in very low orbits and with periods of 3-14 days. All of their parent stars are enriched with heavy elements, [Fe/H] = 0.1-0.2. This may indicate that the process of exoplanet formation depends on the chemical composition of the protoplanetary disk. The very existence of exoplanets of the hot-Jupiter type considered in the context of new theoretical work comes up against the problem of the formation of Jupiter in its real orbit. All the exoplanets in orbits with a semimajor axis of more than 0.15-0.20 astronomical units (AU) have orbital

  16. Origin and Diversity of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Young, Richard E. (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    Modern theories of star and planet formation, which are based upon observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments, predict that rocky planets should form around most single stars, although it is possible that most such planets are lost to orbital decay within the protoplanetary disk. The frequency of formation of gas giant planets is more difficult to predict theoretically. Terrestrial planets are believed to grow via pairwise accretion until the spacing of planetary orbits becomes large enough that the configuration is stable for the age of the system. Giant planets begin their growth like terrestrial planets, but they become massive enough that they are able to accumulate substantial amounts of gas before the protoplanetary disk dissipates. Models for the formation of the giant planets found in recent radial velocity searches are discussed.

  17. TC4 Observing Campaign: An Operational Test of NASA Planetary Defense Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reddy, V.; Kelley, M. S.; Landis, R. R.

    Impacts due to near-Earth objects ( 90% near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, and 10% comets) are one of the natural hazards that can pose a great risk to life on Earth, but one that can potentially be mitigated, if the threat is detected with sufficient lead-time. While the probability of such an event is low, the outcome is so catastrophic that we are well justified in investing a modest effort to minimize this threat. Historically, asteroid impacts have altered the course of evolution on the Earth. In 2013 the Chelyabinsk meteor over Russia, which injured over 1600 people and caused $30M in damages, reinforced the importance of detecting and characterizing small NEAs that pose a greater threat than most large NEAs discovered so far. The NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) was established to ensure the early detection, tracking and characterization of potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) and is the lead office for providing timely and accurate communications and coordination of U.S. Government planning for response to an actual impact threat. In an effort to test the operational readiness of all entities critical to planetary defense, the NASA PDCO is supporting a community-led exercise. The target of this exercise is 2012 TC4, a 20- meter diameter asteroid that is currently expected to pass by the Earth over Antarctica on Oct. 12, 2017 at a distance of only 2.3 Earth radii. The goal of the TC4 Observing Campaign is to recover, track, and characterize 2012 TC4 as a potential impactor in order to exercise the entire Planetary Defense system from observations, modeling, prediction, and communication. The paper will present an overview of the campaign and summarize early results from the exercise.

  18. SNOOPY: Student Nanoexperiments for Outreach and Observational Planetary Inquiry

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kuhlma, K. R.; Hecht, M. H.; Brinza, D. E.; Feldman, J. E.; Fuerstenau, S. D.; Friedman, L.; Kelly, L.; Oslick, J.; Polk, K.; Moeller, L. E.

    2001-01-01

    As scientists and engineers primarily employed by the public, we have a responsibility to "communicate the results of our research so that the average American could understand that NASA is an investment in our future...". Not only are we employed by the public, but they are also the source of future generations of scientists and engineers. Teachers typically don't have the time or expertise to research recent advances in space science and reduce them to a form that students can absorb. Teachers are also often intimidated by both the subject and the researchers themselves. Therefore, the burden falls on us - the space scientists and engineers of the world - to communicate our findings in ways both teachers and students can understand. Student Nanoexperiments for Outreach and Observational Planetary InquirY (SNOOPY) provides just such an opportunity to directly involve our customers in planetary science missions.

  19. Small reactor power systems for manned planetary surface bases

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bloomfield, Harvey S.

    1987-01-01

    A preliminary feasibility study of the potential application of small nuclear reactor space power systems to manned planetary surface base missions was conducted. The purpose of the study was to identify and assess the technology, performance, and safety issues associated with integration of reactor power systems with an evolutionary manned planetary surface exploration scenario. The requirements and characteristics of a variety of human-rated modular reactor power system configurations selected for a range of power levels from 25 kWe to hundreds of kilowatts is described. Trade-off analyses for reactor power systems utilizing both man-made and indigenous shielding materials are provided to examine performance, installation and operational safety feasibility issues. The results of this study have confirmed the preliminary feasibility of a wide variety of small reactor power plant configurations for growth oriented manned planetary surface exploration missions. The capability for power level growth with increasing manned presence, while maintaining safe radiation levels, was favorably assessed for nominal 25 to 100 kWe modular configurations. No feasibility limitations or technical barriers were identified and the use of both distance and indigenous planetary soil material for human rated radiation shielding were shown to be viable and attractive options.

  20. The planetary data system

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Acton, Charles; Slavney, Susan; Arvidson, Raymond E.; Gaddis, Lisa R.; Gordon, Mitchell; Lavoie, Susan

    2017-01-01

    In the early 1980s, the Space Science Board (SSB) of the National Research Council was concerned about the poor and inconsistent treatment of scientific information returned from NASA’s space science missions. The SSB formed a panel [The Committee on Data Management and Computation (CODMAC)] to assess the situation and make recommendations to NASA for improvements. The CODMAC panel issued a report [1,2] that led to a number of actions, one of which was the convening of a Planetary Data Workshop in November 1983 [3]. The key findings of that workshop were that (1) important datasets were being irretrievably lost, and (2) the use of planetary data by the wider community is constrained by inaccessibility and a lack of commonality in format and documentation. The report further stated, “Most participants felt the present system (of data archiving and access) is inadequate and immediate changes are necessary to insure retention of and access to these and future datasets.”

  1. Forever Alone? Testing Single Eccentric Planetary Systems for Multiple Companions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wittenmyer, Robert A.; Wang, Songhu; Horner, Jonathan; Tinney, C. G.; Butler, R. P.; Jones, H. R. A.; O'Toole, S. J.; Bailey, J.; Carter, B. D.; Salter, G. S.; Wright, D.; Zhou, Ji-Lin

    2013-09-01

    Determining the orbital eccentricity of an extrasolar planet is critically important for understanding the system's dynamical environment and history. However, eccentricity is often poorly determined or entirely mischaracterized due to poor observational sampling, low signal-to-noise, and/or degeneracies with other planetary signals. Some systems previously thought to contain a single, moderate-eccentricity planet have been shown, after further monitoring, to host two planets on nearly circular orbits. We investigate published apparent single-planet systems to see if the available data can be better fit by two lower-eccentricity planets. We identify nine promising candidate systems and perform detailed dynamical tests to confirm the stability of the potential new multiple-planet systems. Finally, we compare the expected orbits of the single- and double-planet scenarios to better inform future observations of these interesting systems.

  2. Planetary Protection Considerations for Life Support and Habitation Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barta, Daniel J.; Hogan, John A.

    2010-01-01

    Life support systems for future human missions beyond low Earth orbit may include a combination of existing hardware components and advanced technologies. Discipline areas for technology development include atmosphere revitalization, water recovery, solid waste management, crew accommodations, food production, thermal systems, environmental monitoring, fire protection and radiation protection. Life support systems will be influenced by in situ resource utilization (ISRU), crew mobility and the degree of extravehicular activity. Planetary protection represents an additional set of requirements that technology developers have generally not considered. Planetary protection guidelines will affect the kind of operations, processes, and functions that can take place during future exploration missions, including venting and discharge of liquids and solids, ejection of wastes, use of ISRU, requirements for cabin atmospheric trace contaminant concentrations, cabin leakage and restrictions on what materials, organisms, and technologies that may be brought on missions. Compliance with planetary protection requirements may drive development of new capabilities or processes (e.g. in situ sterilization, waste containment, contaminant measurement) and limit or prohibit certain kinds of operations or processes (e.g. unfiltered venting). Ultimately, there will be an effect on mission costs, including the mission trade space. Planetary protection requirements need to be considered early in technology development programs. It is expected that planetary protection will have a major impact on technology selection for future missions.

  3. A highly dynamical debris disc in an evolved planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manser, Christopher

    2017-08-01

    Our HST/COS survey for the photospheric pollution by planetary debris undisputably demonstrates that at least 25% of white dwarfs host an evolved planetary system. The debris discs holding the material that accretes onto the white dwarf are produced by the tidal disruption of asteroids, and are observed in nearly 40 systems by infrared excess emission from micron-sized dust. In a small number of cases, we have also detected double-peaked Ca II 860 nm emission lines from a metal-rich gaseous disc in addition to photospheric pollution and circumstellar dust. Our ground-based monitoring of the brightest of these systems, SDSS J1228+1040, over the last eleven years shows a dramatic morphological change in the emission line profiles on the time-scale of years. The evolution of the line profiles is consistent with the precession of an eccentric disc on a period of 25 years, indicating a recent dynamical interaction within the underlying dust disc. This could either be related to the initial circularisation of the disc, or a secondary impact onto an existing disc. We expect that the accretion rate onto the white dwarf varies on the same timescale as the Ca II emission lines, and there is the tantalising possibility to detect changes in the bulk abundances, if the impact of a planetesimal with a different bulk abundance stirred up the disc. We request a small amount of COS time to monitor the debris abundances over the next three HST Cycles to test this hypothesis, and bolster our understanding of the late evolution of planetary systems.

  4. The NASA Planetary Data System's Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node and the Planetary Spatial Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Initiative

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gaddis, L. R.; Laura, J.; Hare, T.; Hagerty, J.

    2017-06-01

    Here we address the role of the PSDI initiative in the context of work to archive and deliver planetary data by NASA’s Planetary Data System, and in particular by the PDS Cartography and Imaging Sciences Discipline Node (aka “Imaging” or IMG).

  5. Teaching Planetary Science as Part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Margot, Jean-Luc; Greenberg, Adam H.

    2017-10-01

    In Spring 2016 and 2017, UCLA offered a course titled "EPSS C179/279 - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Theory and Applications". The course is designed for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students in the science, technical, engineering, and mathematical fields. Each year, students designed an observing sequence for the Green Bank telescope, observed known planetary systems remotely, wrote a sophisticated and modular data processing pipeline, analyzed the data, and presented their results. In 2016, 15 students participated in the course (9U, 5G; 11M, 3F) and observed 14 planetary systems in the Kepler field. In 2017, 17 students participated (15U, 2G; 10M, 7F) and observed 10 planetary systems in the Kepler field, TRAPPIST-1, and LHS 1140. In order to select suitable targets, students learned about planetary systems, planetary habitability, and planetary dynamics. In addition to planetary science fundamentals, students learned radio astronomy fundamentals, collaborative software development, signal processing techniques, and statistics. Evaluations indicate that the course is challenging but that students are eager to learn because of the engrossing nature of SETI. Students particularly value the teamwork approach, the observing experience, and working with their own data. The next offering of the course will be in Spring 2018. Additional information about our SETI work is available at seti.ucla.edu.

  6. Planetary data analysis and display system: A version of PC-McIDAS

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Limaye, Sanjay S.; Sromovsky, L. A.; Saunders, R. S.; Martin, Michael

    1993-01-01

    We propose to develop a system for access and analysis of planetary data from past and future space missions based on an existing system, the PC-McIDAS workstation. This system is now in use in the atmospheric science community for access to meteorological satellite and conventional weather data. The proposed system would be usable not only by planetary atmospheric researchers but also by the planetary geologic community. By providing the critical tools of an efficient system architecture, newer applications and customized user interfaces can be added by the end user within such a system.

  7. Exchange of Biomaterial Between Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Napier, W. M.

    2011-10-01

    It is now known that dynamical highways exist along which viable microorganisms may travel between the planets of the solar system. The extension of this concept to interstellar distances is explored here. Giant molecular clouds play a significant role in the process. They stimulate exoplanetary systems by disturbing their comet clouds and enhancing planetary impact rates. Biomaterial thrown out by impacts is injected directly into their stellar nurseries, with transfer times typically 0.1-0.5 million years. With reasonably conservative assumptions it is expected that, if life started at one locality in the Galaxy 5-10 Gyr ago, it would by now occupy ecological niches throughout the habitable zone. The chief uncertainty is the proportion of planetary systems capable of receiving life, nurturing it and re-ejecting it through impacts: a critical proportion of ˜10-3 to ˜10-4 such exoplanetary systems is necessary for the diffusion of life to go critical in the solar neighbourhood. This requirement is relaxed within ˜3-5 kpc of the Galactic centre.

  8. On-Board Perception System For Planetary Aerobot Balloon Navigation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Balaram, J.; Scheid, Robert E.; T. Salomon, Phil

    1996-01-01

    NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is implementing the Planetary Aerobot Testbed to develop the technology needed to operate a robotic balloon aero-vehicle (Aerobot). This earth-based system would be the precursor for aerobots designed to explore Venus, Mars, Titan and other gaseous planetary bodies. The on-board perception system allows the aerobot to localize itself and navigate on a planet using information derived from a variety of celestial, inertial, ground-imaging, ranging, and radiometric sensors.

  9. Expanding the Planetary Analog Test Sites in Hawaii - Planetary Basalt Manipulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelso, R.

    2013-12-01

    The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) is one of the very few planetary surface research test sites in the country that is totally funded by the state legislature. In recent expansions, PISCES is broadening its work in planetary test sites to include much more R&D work in the planetary surface systems, and the manipulation of basalt materials. This is to include laser 3D printing of basalt, 'lunar-concrete' construction in state projects for Hawaii, renewable energy, and adding lava tubes/skylights to their mix of high-quality planetary analog test sites. PISCES Executive Director, Rob Kelso, will be providing program updates on the interest of the Hawaii State Legislature in planetary surface systems, new applied research initiatives in planetary basalts and interests in planetary construction.

  10. Magnetic Fields of Extrasolar Planets: Planetary Interiors and Habitability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazio, T. Joseph

    2018-06-01

    Ground-based observations showed that Jupiter's radio emission is linked to its planetary-scale magnetic field, and subsequent spacecraft observations have shown that most planets, and some moons, have or had a global magnetic field. Generated by internal dynamos, magnetic fields are one of the few remote sensing means of constraining the properties of planetary interiors. For the Earth, its magnetic field has been speculated to be partially responsible for its habitability, and knowledge of an extrasolar planet's magnetic field may be necessary to assess its habitability. The radio emission from Jupiter and other solar system planets is produced by an electron cyclotron maser, and detections of extrasolar planetary electron cyclotron masers will enable measurements of extrasolar planetary magnetic fields. Based on experience from the solar system, such observations will almost certainly require space-based observations, but they will also be guided by on-going and near-future ground-based observations.This work has benefited from the discussion and participants of the W. M. Keck Institute of Space Studies "Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability" and content within a white paper submitted to the National Academy of Science Committee on Exoplanet Science Strategy. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  11. The imaging node for the Planetary Data System

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Eliason, E.M.; LaVoie, S.K.; Soderblom, L.A.

    1996-01-01

    The Planetary Data System Imaging Node maintains and distributes the archives of planetary image data acquired from NASA's flight projects with the primary goal of enabling the science community to perform image processing and analysis on the data. The Node provides direct and easy access to the digital image archives through wide distribution of the data on CD-ROM media and on-line remote-access tools by way of Internet services. The Node provides digital image processing tools and the expertise and guidance necessary to understand the image collections. The data collections, now approaching one terabyte in volume, provide a foundation for remote sensing studies for virtually all the planetary systems in our solar system (except for Pluto). The Node is responsible for restoring data sets from past missions in danger of being lost. The Node works with active flight projects to assist in the creation of their archive products and to ensure that their products and data catalogs become an integral part of the Node's data collections.

  12. The Evolution and Disruption of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Laughlin, Gregory; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Planetary systems that encounter passing stars can experience severe orbital disruption, and the efficiency of this process is greatly enhanced when the impinging systems are binary pairs rather than single stars. Using a Monte Carlo approach, we have performed nearly half a million numerical experiments to examine the long term ramifications of planetary scattering on planetary systems. We have concluded that systems which form in dense environments such as Orion's Trapezium cluster have roughly a ten percent chance of being seriously disrupted. We have also used our programs to explore the long-term prospects for our own Solar system. Given the current interstellar environment, we have computed the odds that Earth will find its orbit seriously disrupted prior to the emergence of a runaway greenhouse effect driven by the Sun's increasing luminosity. This estimate includes both direct disruption events and scattering processes that seriously alter the orbits of the Jovian planets, which then force severe changes upon the Earth's orbit. We then explore the consequences of the Earth being thrown into deep space. The surface biosphere would rapidly shut down under conditions of zero insolation, but the Earth's radioactive heat is capable of maintaining life deep underground, and perhaps in hydrothermal vent communities, for some time to come. Although unlikely for the Earth, this scenario may be common throughout the universe, since many environments where liquid water could exist (e.g., Europa and Callisto) must derive their energy from internal (rather than external) heating.

  13. Lidar observations of the planetary boundary layer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Melfi, S. H.; Spinhirne, J. D.; Palm, S. P.

    1985-01-01

    The application of an airborne downward-looking lidar to the study of organized cellular convection in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) over the ocean is described. The lidar consisted of a frequency doubled Nd-YAG 530 mm-wavelength laser whose axis was aligned colinearly with the optical axis of an all-reflecting 40 mm-diameter Newtonian telescope. The airborne lidar provided a unique observation of both microscale and mesoscale variations of the PBL top. The lidar data, presented as constant backscatter isopleth soundings, provide a visual indication of the presence of vertically organized convection cells. Comparisons of the lidar-derived PBL structure with both a conceptual model of the PBL and laboratory simulations of Deardorf et al. (1980) of a developing convective PBL showed that the observations are consistent with a model of mixing in the PBL, which involves a field of organized updrafts separated by downdrafts.

  14. Optimal Asteroid Mass Determination from Planetary Range Observations: A Study of a Simplified Test Model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kuchynka, P.; Laskar, J.; Fienga, A.

    2011-01-01

    Mars ranging observations are available over the past 10 years with an accuracy of a few meters. Such precise measurements of the Earth-Mars distance provide valuable constraints on the masses of the asteroids perturbing both planets. Today more than 30 asteroid masses have thus been estimated from planetary ranging data (see [1] and [2]). Obtaining unbiased mass estimations is nevertheless difficult. Various systematic errors can be introduced by imperfect reduction of spacecraft tracking observations to planetary ranging data. The large number of asteroids and the limited a priori knowledge of their masses is also an obstacle for parameter selection. Fitting in a model a mass of a negligible perturber, or on the contrary omitting a significant perturber, will induce important bias in determined asteroid masses. In this communication, we investigate a simplified version of the mass determination problem. Instead of planetary ranging observations from spacecraft or radar data, we consider synthetic ranging observations generated with the INPOP [2] ephemeris for a test model containing 25000 asteroids. We then suggest a method for optimal parameter selection and estimation in this simplified framework.

  15. The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Placing Our Solar System in Context with Spitzer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, Michael R.; Hillenbrand, Lynne A.; Backman, Dana; Beckwith, Steve; Bouwman, Jeroen; Brooke, Tim; Carpenter, John; Cohen, Martin; Cortes, Stephanie; Crockett, Nathan; Gorti, Uma; Henning, Thomas; Hines, Dean; Hollenbach, David; Kim, Jinyoung Serena; Lunine, Jonathan; Malhotra, Renu; Mamajek, Eric; Metchev, Stanimir; Moro-Martin, Amaya; Morris, Pat; Najita, Joan; Padgett, Deborah; Pascucci, Ilaria; Rodmann, Jens; Schlingman, Wayne; Silverstone, Murray; Soderblom, David; Stauffer, John; Stobie, Elizabeth; Strom, Steve; Watson, Dan; Weidenschilling, Stuart; Wolf, Sebastian; Young, Erick

    2006-12-01

    We provide an overview of the Spitzer Legacy Program, Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems, that was proposed in 2000, begun in 2001, and executed aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope between 2003 and 2006. This program exploits the sensitivity of Spitzer to carry out mid-infrared spectrophotometric observations of solar-type stars. With a sample of ~328 stars ranging in age from ~3 Myr to ~3 Gyr, we trace the evolution of circumstellar gas and dust from primordial planet-building stages in young circumstellar disks through to older collisionally generated debris disks. When completed, our program will help define the timescales over which terrestrial and gas giant planets are built, constrain the frequency of planetesimal collisions as a function of time, and establish the diversity of mature planetary architectures. In addition to the observational program, we have coordinated a concomitant theoretical effort aimed at understanding the dynamics of circumstellar dust with and without the effects of embedded planets, dust spectral energy distributions, and atomic and molecular gas line emission. Together with the observations, these efforts will provide an astronomical context for understanding whether our solar system-and its habitable planet-is a common or a rare circumstance. Additional information about the FEPS project can be found on the team Web site.

  16. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astornomy and Planetary Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reach, William T.; SOFIA Sciece Mission Operations

    2016-10-01

    The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy enables observations at far-infrared wavelengths, including the range 30-300 microns that is nearly completely obscured from the ground. By flying in the stratosphere above 95% of atmospheric water vapor, access is opened to photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric observations of Solar System targets spanning small bodies through major planets. Extrasolar planetary systems can be observed through their debris disks or transits, and forming planetary systems through protoplanetary disks, protostellar envelopes, and molecular cloud cores. SOFIA operates out of Southern California most of the year. For the summer of 2016, we deployed to New Zealand with 3 scientific instruments. The HAWC+ far-infrared photopolarimeter was recently flown and is in commissioning, and two projects are in Phase A study to downselect to one new facility instrument. The Cycle 5 observing proposal results are anticipated to be be released by the time of this DPS meeting, and successful planetary proposals will be advertised.

  17. Modelling the Diversity of Outer Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Levison, H. F.; Duncan, M. J.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

    1998-01-01

    The process of planetary growth is extremely complicated, involving a myriad of physical and chemical processes, many of which are poorly understood. The ultimate configuration that a planetary system attains depends upon the properties of the disk out of which it grew, of the star at the center of the disk and, at least in some cases, of the interstellar environment. In an effort to numerically survey the possible diversity of planetary systems, we have constructed synthetic systems of giant planets and integrated their orbits to determine the dynamical lifetimes and thus the viability of these systems. Our construction algorithm begins with 110 -- 180 planetesimals located between 4 and 40 AU from a one solar mass star; most initial planetesimals have masses several tenths that of Earth. We integrate the orbits of these bodies subject to mutual gravitational perturbations and -as drag for 10(exp 6) - 10(exp 7) years, merging any pair of planetesimals which pass within one-tenth of a Hill Sphere of one another and adding "gas" to embryos larger than 10 Earth masses. Use of such large planetesimal radii provided sufficient damping to prevent the system from excessive dynamical heating. Subsequently, systems were evolved without gas drag, either with the enlarged radii or with more realistic radii. Systems took from a few million years to greater than ten billion years to become stable (10(exp 9) years without mergers of ejections). Some of the systems produced with the enlarged radii closely resemble our outer Solar System. Many systems contained only Uranus-mass objects. Encounters in simulations using realistic radii resulted in ejections, typically leaving only a few planets per system, most of which were on very eccentric orbits. Some of the systems that we constructed were stable for at least a billion years despite undergoing macroscopic orbital changes on much shorter timescales.

  18. Three Transits for the Price of One: Super-Earth Transits of the Nearest Planetary System Discovered By Kepler/K2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Redfield, Seth; Niraula, Prajwal; Hedges, Christina; Crossfield, Ian; Kreidberg, Laura; Greene, Tom; Rodriguez, Joey; Vanderburg, Andrew; Laughlin, Gregory; Millholland, Sarah; Wang, Songhu; Cochran, William; Livingston, John; Gandolfi, Davide; Guenther, Eike; Fridlund, Malcolm; Korth, Judith

    2018-05-01

    We propose primary transit observations of three Super-Earth planets in the newly discovered planetary system around a bright, nearby star, GJ 9827. We recently announced the detection of three super-Earth planets in 1:3:5 commensurability, the inner planet, GJ 9827 b having a period of 1.2 days. This is the nearest planetary system that Kepler or K2 has found, at 30 pc, and given its brightness is one of the top systems for follow-up characterization. This system presents a unique opportunity to acquire three planetary transits for the price of one. There are several opportunities in the Spitzer visibility windows to obtain all three transits in a short period of time. We propose 3.6 micron observations of all three Super-Earth transits in a single 18-hour observation window. The proximity to a 1:3:5 resonance is intriguing from a dynamical standpoint as well. Indeed, anomalous transit timing offsets have been measured for planet d in Hubble observations that suffer from partial phase coverage. The short cadence and extended coverage of Spitzer is essential to provide a firm determination of the ephemerides and characterize any transit timing variations. Constraining these orbital parameters is critical for follow-up observations from space and ground-based telescopes. Due to the brightness of the host star, this planetary system is likely to be extensively observed in the years to come. Indeed, our team has acquired observations of the planets orbiting GJ9827 with Hubble in the ultraviolet and infrared. The proposed observations will provide infrared atmospheric measurements and firm orbital characterization which is critical for planning and designing future observations, in particular atmospheric characterization with JWST.

  19. Strong plume fluxes at Mars observed by MAVEN: An important planetary ion escape channel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, Y.; Fang, X.; Brain, D. A.; McFadden, J. P.; Halekas, J. S.; Connerney, J. E.; Curry, S. M.; Harada, Y.; Luhmann, J. G.; Jakosky, B. M.

    2015-11-01

    We present observations by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission of a substantial plume-like distribution of escaping ions from the Martian atmosphere, organized by the upstream solar wind convection electric field. From a case study of MAVEN particle-and-field data during one spacecraft orbit, we identified three escaping planetary ion populations: plume fluxes mainly along the upstream electric field over the north pole region of the Mars-Sun-Electric field (MSE) coordinate system, antisunward ion fluxes in the tail region, and much weaker upstream pickup ion fluxes. A statistical study of O+ fluxes using 3 month MAVEN data shows that the plume is a constant structure with strong fluxes widely distributed in the MSE northern hemisphere, which constitutes an important planetary ion escape channel. The escape rate through the plume is estimated to be ~30% of the tailward escape and ~23% of the total escape for > 25 eV O+ ions.

  20. Packed Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barnes, R.; Greenberg, R.

    2005-08-01

    Planetary systems display a wide range of appearances, with apparently arbitrary values of semi-major axis, eccentricity, etc. We reduce the complexity of orbital configurations to a single value, δ , which is a measure of how close, over secular timescales ( ˜10,000 orbits), two consecutive planets come to each other. We measure this distance relative to the sum of the radii of their Hill spheres, sometimes referred to as mutual Hill radii (MHR). We determine the closest approach distance by numerically integrating the entire system on coplanar orbits, using minimum masses. For non-resonant systems, close approach occurs during apsidal alignment, either parallel or anti-parallel. For resonant pairs the distance at conjunction determines the closest approach distance. Previous analytic work found that planets on circular orbits were assuredly unstable if they came within 3.5 MHR (i.e. Gladman 1993; Chambers, Wetherill & Boss 1996). We find that most known pairs of jovian planets (including those in our solar system) come within 3.5 -- 7 MHR of each other. We also find that several systems are unstable (their closest approach distance is less than 3.5 MHR). These systems, if they are real, probably exist in an observationally permitted location somewhat different from the current best fit. In these cases, the planets' closest approach distance will most likely also be slightly larger than 3.5 MHR. Most pairs beyond 7 MHR probably experienced post-formation migration (i.e. tidal circularization, inward scattering of small bodies) which moved them further apart. This result is even more remarkable since we have used the minimum masses; most likely the systems are inclined to the line of sight, making the Hill spheres larger, and shrinking δ . This dense packing may reflect a tendency for planets to form as close together as they can without being dynamically unstable. This result further implies there may be a large number of smaller, currently undetectable

  1. Solar System Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Norwood, James; Hammel, Heidi; Milam, Stefanie; Stansberry, John; Lunine, Jonathan; Chanover, Nancy; Hines, Dean; Sonneborn, George; Tiscareno, Matthew; Brown, Michael; hide

    2016-01-01

    The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will enable a wealth of new scientific investigations in the near- and mid-infrared, with sensitivity and spatial/spectral resolution greatly surpassing its predecessors. In this paper, we focus upon Solar System science facilitated by JWST, discussing the most current information available concerning JWST instrument properties and observing techniques relevant to planetary science. We also present numerous example observing scenarios for a wide variety of Solar System targets to illustrate the potential of JWST science to the Solar System community. This paper updates and supersedes the Solar System white paper published by the JWST Project in 2010. It is based both on that paper and on a workshop held at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Reno, NV, in 2012.

  2. Planetary Radar

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Neish, Catherine D.; Carter, Lynn M.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter describes the principles of planetary radar, and the primary scientific discoveries that have been made using this technique. The chapter starts by describing the different types of radar systems and how they are used to acquire images and accurate topography of planetary surfaces and probe their subsurface structure. It then explains how these products can be used to understand the properties of the target being investigated. Several examples of discoveries made with planetary radar are then summarized, covering solar system objects from Mercury to Saturn. Finally, opportunities for future discoveries in planetary radar are outlined and discussed.

  3. Implications of the giant planets for the formation and evolution of planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stevenson, David J.

    1989-01-01

    The giant planet region in the solar system appears to be bounded inside by the limit of water condensation, suggesting that the most abundant astrophysical condensate plays an important role in giant planet formation. Indeed, Jupiter and Saturn exhibit evidence for rock and/or ice cores or central concentrations that probably accumulated first, acting as nuclei for subsequent gas accumulation. This is a 'planetary' accumulation process, distinct from the stellar formation process, even though most of Jupiter has a similar composition to the primordial sun. Uranus and Neptune appear to exhibit evidence of an important role for giant impacts in their structure and evolution. No simple picture emerges for the temperature structure of the solar nebula from observations alone. However, it seems likely that Jupiter is the key to the planetary system, and a similar planet could be expected for other systems. The data and inferences from these data are summarized for the entire known solar system beyond the asteroid belt.

  4. Towards a sustainable modular robot system for planetary exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hossain, S. G. M.

    This thesis investigates multiple perspectives of developing an unmanned robotic system suited for planetary terrains. In this case, the unmanned system consists of unit-modular robots. This type of robot has potential to be developed and maintained as a sustainable multi-robot system while located far from direct human intervention. Some characteristics that make this possible are: the cooperation, communication and connectivity among the robot modules, flexibility of individual robot modules, capability of self-healing in the case of a failed module and the ability to generate multiple gaits by means of reconfiguration. To demonstrate the effects of high flexibility of an individual robot module, multiple modules of a four-degree-of-freedom unit-modular robot were developed. The robot was equipped with a novel connector mechanism that made self-healing possible. Also, design strategies included the use of series elastic actuators for better robot-terrain interaction. In addition, various locomotion gaits were generated and explored using the robot modules, which is essential for a modular robot system to achieve robustness and thus successfully navigate and function in a planetary environment. To investigate multi-robot task completion, a biomimetic cooperative load transportation algorithm was developed and simulated. Also, a liquid motion-inspired theory was developed consisting of a large number of robot modules. This can be used to traverse obstacles that inevitably occur in maneuvering over rough terrains such as in a planetary exploration. Keywords: Modular robot, cooperative robots, biomimetics, planetary exploration, sustainability.

  5. Communication System Architecture for Planetary Exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Braham, Stephen P.; Alena, Richard; Gilbaugh, Bruce; Glass, Brian; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Future human missions to Mars will require effective communications supporting exploration activities and scientific field data collection. Constraints on cost, size, weight and power consumption for all communications equipment make optimization of these systems very important. These information and communication systems connect people and systems together into coherent teams performing the difficult and hazardous tasks inherent in planetary exploration. The communication network supporting vehicle telemetry data, mission operations, and scientific collaboration must have excellent reliability, and flexibility.

  6. Comets as a possible source of nanodust in the Solar System cloud and in planetary debris discs.

    PubMed

    Mann, Ingrid

    2017-07-13

    Comets, comet-like objects and their fragments are the most plausible source for the dust in both the inner heliosphere and planetary debris discs around other stars. The smallest size of dust particles in debris discs is not known and recent observational results suggest that the size distribution of the dust extends down to sizes of a few nanometres or a few tens of nanometres. In the Solar System, electric field measurements from spacecraft observe events that are explained with high-velocity impacts of nanometre-sized dust. In some planetary debris discs an observed mid- to near-infrared emission supposedly results from hot dust located in the vicinity of the star. And the observed emission is characteristic of dust of sizes a few tens of nanometres. Rosetta observations, on the other hand, provide little information on the presence of nanodust near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This article describes why this is not in contradiction to the observations of nanodust in the heliosphere and in planetary debris discs. The direct ejection of nanodust from the nucleus of the comet would not contribute significantly to the observed nanodust fluxes. We discuss a scenario that nanodust forms in the interplanetary dust cloud through the high-velocity collision process in the interplanetary medium for which the production rates are highest near the Sun. Likewise, fragmentation by collisions occurs near the star in planetary debris discs. The collisional fragmentation process in the inner Solar System occurs at similar velocities to those of the collisional evolution in the interstellar medium. A question for future studies is whether there is a common magic size of the smallest collision fragments and what determines this size.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'. © 2017 The Author(s).

  7. Comets as a possible source of nanodust in the Solar System cloud and in planetary debris discs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mann, Ingrid

    2017-05-01

    Comets, comet-like objects and their fragments are the most plausible source for the dust in both the inner heliosphere and planetary debris discs around other stars. The smallest size of dust particles in debris discs is not known and recent observational results suggest that the size distribution of the dust extends down to sizes of a few nanometres or a few tens of nanometres. In the Solar System, electric field measurements from spacecraft observe events that are explained with high-velocity impacts of nanometre-sized dust. In some planetary debris discs an observed mid- to near-infrared emission supposedly results from hot dust located in the vicinity of the star. And the observed emission is characteristic of dust of sizes a few tens of nanometres. Rosetta observations, on the other hand, provide little information on the presence of nanodust near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This article describes why this is not in contradiction to the observations of nanodust in the heliosphere and in planetary debris discs. The direct ejection of nanodust from the nucleus of the comet would not contribute significantly to the observed nanodust fluxes. We discuss a scenario that nanodust forms in the interplanetary dust cloud through the high-velocity collision process in the interplanetary medium for which the production rates are highest near the Sun. Likewise, fragmentation by collisions occurs near the star in planetary debris discs. The collisional fragmentation process in the inner Solar System occurs at similar velocities to those of the collisional evolution in the interstellar medium. A question for future studies is whether there is a common magic size of the smallest collision fragments and what determines this size. This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

  8. MAVEN Observations of Escaping Planetary Ions from the Martian Atmosphere: Mass, Velocity, and Spatial Distributions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, Yaxue; Fang, Xiaohua; Brain, D. A.; McFadden, James P.; Halekas, Jasper; Connerney, Jack

    2015-04-01

    The Mars-solar wind interaction accelerates and transports planetary ions away from the Martian atmosphere through a number of processes, including ‘pick-up’ by electromagnetic fields. The MAVEN spacecraft has made routine observations of escaping planetary ions since its arrival at Mars in September 2014. The SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC) instrument measures the ion energy, mass, and angular spectra. It has detected energetic planetary ions during most of the spacecraft orbits, which are attributed to the pick-up process. We found significant variations in the escaping ion mass and velocity distributions from the STATIC data, which can be explained by factors such as varying solar wind conditions, contributions of particles from different source locations and different phases during the pick-up process. We also study the spatial distributions of different planetary ion species, which can provide insight into the physics of ion escaping process and enhance our understanding of atmospheric erosion by the solar wind. Our results will be further interpreted within the context of the upstream solar wind conditions measured by the MAVEN Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) instrument and the magnetic field environment measured by the Magnetometer (MAG) instrument. Our study shows that the ion spatial distribution in the Mars-Sun-Electric-Field (MSE) coordinate system and the velocity space distribution with respect to the local magnetic field line can be used to distinguish the ions escaping through the polar plume and those through the tail region. The contribution of the polar plume ion escape to the total escape rate will also be discussed.

  9. Observations of the planetary nebula RWT 152 with OSIRIS/GTC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aller, A.; Miranda, L. F.; Olguín, L.; Solano, E.; Ulla, A.

    2016-11-01

    RWT 152 is one of the few known planetary nebulae with an sdO central star. We present subarcsecond red tunable filter Hα imaging and intermediate-resolution, long-slit spectroscopy of RWT 152 obtained with OSIRIS/GTC (Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy/Gran Telescopio Canarias) with the goal of analysing its properties. The Hα image reveals a bipolar nebula with a bright equatorial region and multiple bubbles in the main lobes. A faint circular halo surrounds the main nebula. The nebular spectra reveal a very low excitation nebula with weak emission lines from H+, He+ and double-ionized metals, and absence of emission lines from neutral and single-ionized metals, except for an extremely faint [N II] λ6584 emission line. These spectra may be explained if RWT 152 is a density-bounded planetary nebula. Low nebular chemical abundances of S, O, Ar, N and Ne are obtained in RWT 152, which, together with the derived high peculiar velocity (˜ 92-131 km s-1), indicate that this object is a halo planetary nebula. The available data are consistent with RWT 152 evolving from a low-mass progenitor (˜1 M⊙) formed in a metal-poor environment.

  10. Remote sensor support requirements for planetary missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weddell, J. B.; Wheeler, A. E.

    1971-01-01

    The study approach, methods, results, and conclusions of remote sensor support requirements for planetary missions are summarized. Major efforts were made to (1) establish the scientific and engineering knowledge and observation requirements for planetary exploration in the 1975 to 1985 period; (2) define the state of the art and expected development of instrument systems appropriate for sensing planetary environments; (3) establish scaling laws relating performance and support requirements of candidate remote sensor systems; (4) establish fundamental remote sensor system capabilities, limitations, and support requirements during encounter and other dynamical conditions for specific missions; and (5) construct families of candidate remote sensors compatible with selected missions. It was recommended that these data be integrated with earlier results to enhance utility, and that more restrictions be placed on the system.

  11. Debris Disks as Tracers of Nearby Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stapelfeldt, Karl

    2012-01-01

    Many main-sequence stars possess tenuous circumstellar dust clouds believed to trace extrasolar analogs of the Sun's asteroid and Kuiper Belts. While most of these "debris disks" are known only from far-infrared photometry, dozens are now spatially resolved. In this talk, I'll review the observed structural properties of debris disks as revealed by imaging with the Hubble, Spitzer, and Herschel Space Telescopes. I will show how modeling of the far-infrared spectral energy distributions of resolved disks can be used to constrain their dust particle sizes and albedos. I will review cases of disks whose substructures suggest planetary perturbations, including a newly-discovered eccentric ring system. I'll conclude with thoughts on the potential of upcoming and proposed facilities to resolve similar structures around a greatly expanded sample of nearby debris systems.

  12. Analysis of a planetary-rotation system for evaporated optical coatings.

    PubMed

    Oliver, J B

    2016-10-20

    The impact of planetary design considerations for optical coating deposition is analyzed, including the ideal number of planets, variations in system performance, and the deviation of planet motion from the ideal. System capacity is maximized for four planets, although substrate size can significantly influence this result. Guidance is provided in the design of high-performance deposition systems based on the relative impact of different error modes. Errors in planet mounting such that the planet surface is not perpendicular to the axis of rotation are particularly problematic, suggesting planetary design modifications would be appropriate.

  13. Planetary Science with Balloon-Borne Telescopes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kremic, Tibor; Cheng, Andy; Hibbitts, Karl; Young, Eliot

    2015-01-01

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the planetary science community have recently been exploring the potential contributions of stratospheric balloons to the planetary science field. A study that was recently concluded explored the roughly 200 or so science questions raised in the Planetary Decadal Survey report and found that about 45 of those questions are suited to stratospheric balloon based observations. In September of 2014, a stratospheric balloon mission called BOPPS (which stands for Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science) was flown out of Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The mission had two main objectives, first, to observe a number of planetary targets including one or more Oort cloud comets and second, to demonstrate the applicability and performance of the platform, instruments, and subsystems for making scientific measurements in support planetary science objectives. BOPPS carried two science instruments, BIRC and UVVis. BIRC is a cryogenic infrared multispectral imager which can image in the.6-5 m range using an HgCdTe detector. Narrow band filters were used to allow detection of water and CO2 emission features of the observed targets. The UVVis is an imager with the science range of 300 to 600 nm. A main feature of the UVVis instrument is the incorporation of a guide camera and a Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) system to reduce image jitter to less than 100 milliarcseconds. The BIRC instrument was used to image targets including Oort cloud comets Siding Spring and Jacques, and the dwarf planet 1 Ceres. BOPPS achieved the first ever earth based CO2 observation of a comet and the first images of water and CO2 of an Oort cloud comet (Jacques). It also made the first ever measurement of 1Ceres at 2.73 m to refine the shape of the infrared water absorption feature on that body. The UVVis instrument, mounted on its own optics bench, demonstrated the capability for image correction both from atmospheric disturbances as well as some

  14. Blue Marble Matches: Using Earth for Planetary Comparisons

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Graff, Paige Valderrama

    2009-01-01

    Goal: This activity is designed to introduce students to geologic processes on Earth and model how scientists use Earth to gain a better understanding of other planetary bodies in the solar system. Objectives: Students will: 1. Identify common descriptor characteristics used by scientists to describe geologic features in images. 2. Identify geologic features and how they form on Earth. 3. Create a list of defining/distinguishing characteristics of geologic features 4. Identify geologic features in images of other planetary bodies. 5. List observations and interpretations about planetary body comparisons. 6. Create summary statements about planetary body comparisons.

  15. SPICE: A Geometry Information System Supporting Planetary Mapping, Remote Sensing and Data Mining

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Acton, C.; Bachman, N.; Semenov, B.; Wright, E.

    2013-01-01

    SPICE is an information system providing space scientists ready access to a wide assortment of space geometry useful in planning science observations and analyzing the instrument data returned therefrom. The system includes software used to compute many derived parameters such as altitude, LAT/LON and lighting angles, and software able to find when user-specified geometric conditions are obtained. While not a formal standard, it has achieved widespread use in the worldwide planetary science community

  16. Dynamical Stability of Imaged Planetary Systems in Formation: Application to HL Tau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tamayo, D.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Menou, K.; Rein, H.

    2015-06-01

    A recent Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array image revealed several concentric gaps in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HL Tau. We consider the hypothesis that these gaps are carved by planets, and present a general framework for understanding the dynamical stability of such systems over typical disk lifetimes, providing estimates for the maximum planetary masses. We collect these easily evaluated constraints into a workflow that can help guide the design and interpretation of new observational campaigns and numerical simulations of gap opening in such systems. We argue that the locations of resonances should be significantly shifted in massive disks like HL Tau, and that theoretical uncertainties in the exact offset, together with observational errors, imply a large uncertainty in the dynamical state and stability in such disks. This presents an important barrier to using systems like HL Tau as a proxy for the initial conditions following planet formation. An important observational avenue to breaking this degeneracy is to search for eccentric gaps, which could implicate resonantly interacting planets. Unfortunately, massive disks like HL Tau should induce swift pericenter precession that would smear out any such eccentric features of planetary origin. This motivates pushing toward more typical, less massive disks. For a nominal non-resonant model of the HL Tau system with five planets, we find a maximum mass for the outer three bodies of approximately 2 Neptune masses. In a resonant configuration, these planets can reach at least the mass of Saturn. The inner two planets’ masses are unconstrained by dynamical stability arguments.

  17. The observational basis for JPL's DE 200, the planetary ephemerides of the Astronomical Almanac

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Standish, E. M., Jr.

    1990-07-01

    This paper documents the planetary observational data used in a series of ephemerides produced at JPL over six years preceding the creation of DE118/LE62, the set which transformed directly into the JD2000-based set, DE200/LE200. Details of the data reduction procedures are presented, and techniques to overcome the uncertainties due to planetary topography are described. For the spacecraft data, the basic reductions are augmented by formulations for locating the transponder, whether in orbit or landed on the surface of a planet.

  18. Solar system exploration from the Moon: Synoptic and comparative study of bodies in our Planetary system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bruston, P.; Mumma, M. J.

    1994-01-01

    An observational approach to Planetary Sciences and exploration from Earth applies to a quite limited number of targets, but most of these are spatially complex, and exhibit variability and evolution on a number of temporal scales which lie within the scope of possible observations. Advancing our understanding of the underlying physics requires the study of interactions between the various elements of such systems, and also requires study of the comparative response of both a given object to various conditions and of comparable objects to similar conditions. These studies are best conducted in 'campaigns', i.e. comprehensive programs combining simultaneous coherent observations of every interacting piece of the puzzle. The requirements include both imaging and spectroscopy over a wide spectral range, from UV to IR. While temporal simultaneity of operation in various modes is a key feature, these observations are also conducted over extended periods of time. The moon is a prime site offering long unbroken observation times and high positional stability, observations at small angular separation from the sun, comparative studies of planet Earth, and valuable technical advantages. A lunar observatory should become a central piece of any coherent set of planetary missions, supplying in-situ explorations with the synoptic and comparative data necessary for proper advance planning, correlative observations during the active exploratory phase, and follow-up studies of the target body or of related objects.

  19. Analysis of a planetary-rotation system for evaporated optical coatings

    DOE PAGES

    Oliver, J. B.

    2016-01-01

    The impact of planetary-design considerations for optical coating deposition is analyzed, including the ideal number of planets, variations in system performance, and the deviation of planet motion from the ideal. System capacity is maximized for four planets, although substrate size can significantly influence this result. Guidance is provided in the design of high-performance deposition systems based on the relative impact of different error modes. As a result, errors in planet mounting such that the planet surface is not perpendicular to its axis of rotation are particularly problematic, suggesting planetary design modifications would be appropriate.

  20. The dynamics of post-main sequence planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mustill, Alexander James

    2017-06-01

    The study of planetary systems after their host stars have left the main sequence is of fundamental importance for exoplanet science, as the most direct determination of the compositions of extra-Solar planets, asteroids and comets is in fact made by an analysis of the elemental abundances of the remnants of these bodies accreted into the atmospheres of white dwarfs.To understand how the accreted bodies relate to the source populations in the planetary system, and to model their dynamical delivery to the white dwarf, it is necessary to understand the effects of stellar evolution on bodies' orbits. On the red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) prior to becoming a white dwarf, stars expand to a large size (>1 au) and are easily deformed by orbiting planets, leading to tidal energy dissipation and orbital decay. They also lose half or more of their mass, causing the expansion of bodies' orbits. This mass loss increases the planet:star mass ratio, so planetary systems orbiting white dwarfs can be much less stable than those orbiting their main-sequence progenitors. Finally, small bodies in the system experience strong non-gravitational forces during the RGB and AGB: aerodynamic drag from the mass shed by the star, and strong radiation forces as the stellar luminosity reaches several thousand Solar luminosities.I will review these effects, focusing on planet--star tidal interactions and planet--asteroid interactions, and I will discuss some of the numerical challenges in modelling systems over their entire lifetimes of multiple Gyr.

  1. Science Case for Planetary Exploration with Planetary CubeSats and SmallSats

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Castillo-Rogez, Julie; Raymond, Carol; Jaumann, Ralf; Vane, Gregg; Baker, John

    2016-07-01

    Nano-spacecraft and especially CubeSats are emerging as viable low cost platforms for planetary exploration. Increasing miniaturization of instruments and processing performance enable smart and small packages capable of performing full investigations. While these platforms are limited in terms of payload and lifetime, their form factor and agility enable novel mission architectures and a refreshed relationship to risk. Leveraging a ride with a mothership to access far away destinations can significantly augment the mission science return at relatively low cost. Depending on resources, the mothership may carry several platforms and act as telecom relay for a distributed network or other forms of fractionated architectures. In Summer 2014 an international group of scientists, engineers, and technologists started a study to define investigations to be carried out by nano-spacecrafts. These applications flow down from key science priorities of interest across space agencies: understanding the origin and organization of the Solar system; characterization of planetary processes; assessment of the astrobiological significance of planetary bodies across the Solar system; and retirement of strategic knowledge gaps (SKGs) for Human exploration. This presentation will highlight applications that make the most of the novel architectures introduced by nano-spacecraft. Examples include the low cost reconnaissance of NEOs for science, planetary defense, resource assessment, and SKGs; in situ chemistry measurements (e.g., airless bodies and planetary atmospheres), geophysical network (e.g., magnetic field measurements), coordinated physical and chemical characterization of multiple icy satellites in a giant planet system; and scouting, i.e., risk assessment and site reconnaissance to prepare for close proximity observations of a mothership (e.g., prior to sampling). Acknowledgements: This study is sponsored by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). Part of this work is

  2. Impact of a counter-rotating planetary rotation system on thin-film thickness and uniformity

    DOE PAGES

    Oliver, J. B.

    2017-06-12

    Planetary rotation systems incorporating forward- and counter-rotating planets are used as a means of increasing coating-system capacity for large oblong substrates. Comparisons of planetary motion for the two types of rotating systems are presented based on point tracking for multiple revolutions, as well as comparisons of quantitative thickness and uniformity. Counter-rotation system geometry is shown to result in differences in thin-film thickness relative to standard planetary rotation for precision optical coatings. As a result, this systematic error in thin-film thickness will reduce deposition yields for sensitive coating designs.

  3. Impact of a counter-rotating planetary rotation system on thin-film thickness and uniformity.

    PubMed

    Oliver, J B

    2017-06-20

    Planetary rotation systems incorporating forward- and counter-rotating planets are used as a means of increasing coating-system capacity for large oblong substrates. Comparisons of planetary motion for the two types of rotating systems are presented based on point tracking for multiple revolutions as well as comparisons of quantitative thickness and uniformity. Counter-rotation system geometry is shown to result in differences in thin-film thickness relative to standard planetary rotation for precision optical coatings. This systematic error in thin-film thickness will reduce deposition yields for sensitive coating designs.

  4. Impact of a counter-rotating planetary rotation system on thin-film thickness and uniformity

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Oliver, J. B.

    Planetary rotation systems incorporating forward- and counter-rotating planets are used as a means of increasing coating-system capacity for large oblong substrates. Comparisons of planetary motion for the two types of rotating systems are presented based on point tracking for multiple revolutions, as well as comparisons of quantitative thickness and uniformity. Counter-rotation system geometry is shown to result in differences in thin-film thickness relative to standard planetary rotation for precision optical coatings. As a result, this systematic error in thin-film thickness will reduce deposition yields for sensitive coating designs.

  5. Secular chaos and its application to Mercury, hot Jupiters, and the organization of planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Lithwick, Yoram; Wu, Yanqin

    2014-09-02

    In the inner solar system, the planets' orbits evolve chaotically, driven primarily by secular chaos. Mercury has a particularly chaotic orbit and is in danger of being lost within a few billion years. Just as secular chaos is reorganizing the solar system today, so it has likely helped organize it in the past. We suggest that extrasolar planetary systems are also organized to a large extent by secular chaos. A hot Jupiter could be the end state of a secularly chaotic planetary system reminiscent of the solar system. However, in the case of the hot Jupiter, the innermost planet was Jupiter (rather than Mercury) sized, and its chaotic evolution was terminated when it was tidally captured by its star. In this contribution, we review our recent work elucidating the physics of secular chaos and applying it to Mercury and to hot Jupiters. We also present results comparing the inclinations of hot Jupiters thus produced with observations.

  6. Secular chaos and its application to Mercury, hot Jupiters, and the organization of planetary systems

    PubMed Central

    Lithwick, Yoram; Wu, Yanqin

    2014-01-01

    In the inner solar system, the planets’ orbits evolve chaotically, driven primarily by secular chaos. Mercury has a particularly chaotic orbit and is in danger of being lost within a few billion years. Just as secular chaos is reorganizing the solar system today, so it has likely helped organize it in the past. We suggest that extrasolar planetary systems are also organized to a large extent by secular chaos. A hot Jupiter could be the end state of a secularly chaotic planetary system reminiscent of the solar system. However, in the case of the hot Jupiter, the innermost planet was Jupiter (rather than Mercury) sized, and its chaotic evolution was terminated when it was tidally captured by its star. In this contribution, we review our recent work elucidating the physics of secular chaos and applying it to Mercury and to hot Jupiters. We also present results comparing the inclinations of hot Jupiters thus produced with observations. PMID:24367108

  7. The NASA Planetary Data System Roadmap Study for 2017 - 2026

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McNutt, R. L., Jr.; Gaddis, L. R.; Law, E.; Beyer, R. A.; Crombie, M. K.; Ebel, D. S. S.; Ghosh, A.; Grayzeck, E.; Morgan, T. H.; Paganelli, F.; Raugh, A.; Stein, T.; Tiscareno, M. S.; Weber, R. C.; Banks, M.; Powell, K.

    2017-12-01

    NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) is the formal archive of >1.2 petabytes of data from planetary exploration, science, and research. Initiated in 1989 to address an overall lack of attention to mission data documentation, access, and archiving, the PDS has evolved into an online collection of digital data managed and served by a federation of six science discipline nodes and two technical support nodes. Several ad hoc mission-oriented data nodes also provide complex data interfaces and access for the duration of their missions. The recent Planetary Data System Roadmap Study for 2017 to 2026 involved 15 planetary science community members who collectively prepared a report summarizing the results of an intensive examination of the current state of the PDS and its organization, management, practices, and data holdings (https://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/roadmap/PlanetaryDataSystemRMS17-26_20jun17.pdf). The report summarizes the history of the PDS, its functions and characteristics, and how it has evolved to its present form; also included are extensive references and documentary appendices. The report recognizes that as a complex, evolving, archive system, the PDS must constantly respond to new pressures and opportunities. The report provides details on the challenges now facing the PDS, 19 detailed findings, suggested remediations, and a summary of what the future may hold for planetary data archiving. The findings cover topics such as user needs and expectations, data usability and discoverability (i.e., metadata, data access, documentation, and training), tools and file formats, use of current information technologies, and responses to increases in data volume, variety, complexity, and number of data providers. In addition, the study addresses the possibility of archiving software, laboratory data, and measurements of physical samples. Finally, the report discusses the current structure and governance of the PDS and its impact on how archive growth, technology, and new

  8. Continuing Studies in Support of Ultraviolet Observations of Planetary Atmospheres

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Clark, John

    1997-01-01

    This program was a one-year extension of an earlier Planetary Atmospheres program grant, covering the period 1 August 1996 through 30 September 1997. The grant was for supporting work to complement an active program observing planetary atmospheres with Earth-orbital telescopes, principally the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The recent concentration of this work has been on HST observations of Jupiter's upper atmosphere and aurora, but it has also included observations of Io, serendipitous observations of asteroids, and observations of the velocity structure in the interplanetary medium. The observations of Jupiter have been at vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths, including imaging and spectroscopy of the auroral and airglow emissions. The most recent HST observations have been at the same time as in situ measurements made by the Galileo orbiter instruments, as reflected in the meeting presentations listed below. Concentrated efforts have been applied in this year to the following projects: The analysis of HST WFPC 2 images of Jupiter's aurora, including the Io footprint emissions. We have performed a comparative analysis of the lo footprint locations with two magnetic field models, studied the statistical properties of the apparent dawn auroral storms on Jupiter, and found various other repeated patterns in Jupiter's aurora. Analysis and modeling of airglow and auroral Ly alpha emission line profiles from Jupiter. This has included modeling the aurora] line profiles, including the energy degradation of precipitating charged particles and radiative transfer of the emerging emissions. Jupiter's auroral emission line profile is self-absorbed, since it is produced by an internal source, and the resulting emission with a deep central absorption from the overlying atmosphere permits modeling of the depth of the emissions, plus the motion of the emitting layer with respect to the overlying atmospheric column from the observed Doppler shift of the central absorption. By contrast

  9. Space telescopes planetary monitoring (PM) and Zvezdny (eng. star) patrol (ZP) for planetary science and exoplanets exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tavrov, Alexander; Frolov, Pavel; Korablev, Oleg; Vedenkin, Nikolai; Barabanov, Sergey

    2017-11-01

    Solar System planetology requires a wide use of observing spectroscopy for surface geology to atmosphere climatology. A high-contrast imaging is required to study and to characterize extra-solar planetary systems among other faint astronomical targets observed in the vicinity of bright objects. Two middle class space telescopes projects aimed to observe Solar system planets by a long term monitoring via spectroscopy and polarimetry. Extra solar planets (exoplanets) engineering and scientific explorations are included in science program.

  10. NASA Planetary Science Division's Instrument Development Programs, PICASSO and MatISSE

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gaier, James R.

    2016-01-01

    The Planetary Science Division (PSD) has combined several legacy instrument development programs into just two. The Planetary Instrument Concepts Advancing Solar System Observations (PICASSO) program funds the development of low TRL instruments and components. The Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Observations (MatISSE) program funds the development of instruments in the mid-TRL range. The strategy of PSD instrument development is to develop instruments from PICASSO to MatISSE to proposing for mission development.

  11. In-situ Planetary Subsurface Imaging System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, W.; Weber, R. C.; Dimech, J. L.; Kedar, S.; Neal, C. R.; Siegler, M.

    2017-12-01

    Geophysical and seismic instruments are considered the most effective tools for studying the detailed global structures of planetary interiors. A planet's interior bears the geochemical markers of its evolutionary history, as well as its present state of activity, which has direct implications to habitability. On Earth, subsurface imaging often involves massive data collection from hundreds to thousands of geophysical sensors (seismic, acoustic, etc) followed by transfer by hard links or wirelessly to a central location for post processing and computing, which will not be possible in planetary environments due to imposed mission constraints on mass, power, and bandwidth. Emerging opportunities for geophysical exploration of the solar system from Venus to the icy Ocean Worlds of Jupiter and Saturn dictate that subsurface imaging of the deep interior will require substantial data reduction and processing in-situ. The Real-time In-situ Subsurface Imaging (RISI) technology is a mesh network that senses and processes geophysical signals. Instead of data collection then post processing, the mesh network performs the distributed data processing and computing in-situ, and generates an evolving 3D subsurface image in real-time that can be transmitted under bandwidth and resource constraints. Seismic imaging algorithms (including traveltime tomography, ambient noise imaging, and microseismic imaging) have been successfully developed and validated using both synthetic and real-world terrestrial seismic data sets. The prototype hardware system has been implemented and can be extended as a general field instrumentation platform tailored specifically for a wide variety of planetary uses, including crustal mapping, ice and ocean structure, and geothermal systems. The team is applying the RISI technology to real off-world seismic datasets. For example, the Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE) deployed during the Apollo 17 Moon mission consisted of four geophone instruments

  12. Physical studies of the planetary rings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ip, W.-H.

    1980-01-01

    In this review paper, the physical properties of the Saturnian and Uranian rings as derived from ground-based observations are first discussed. Focus is then shifted to the study of the orbital dynamics of the ring particles. Numerical simulations of the evolutionary history of a system of colliding particles in differential rotation together with theoretical modeling of the inelastic collision processes are surveyed. In anticipation of the information returned from in situ measurements by space probes, interactions of the planetary rings with the interplanetary meteoroids and planetary magnetospheres are briefly considered. Finally, models of planetary ring origin are examined. In this connection, some recent work on the satellite resonant perturbation effects on the ring structure are also touched upon.

  13. A Modular Habitation System for Human Planetary and Space Exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Howe, A. Scott

    2015-01-01

    A small-diameter modular pressure vessel system is devised that can be applied to planetary surface and deep space human exploration missions. As one of the recommendations prepared for the NASA Human Spaceflight Architecture Team (HAT) Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC), a compact modular system can provide a Mars-forward approach to a variety of missions and environments. Small cabins derived from the system can fit into the Space Launch System (SLS) Orion "trunk", or can be mounted with mobility systems to function as pressurized rovers, in-space taxis, ascent stage cabins, or propellant tanks. Larger volumes can be created using inflatable elements for long-duration deep space missions and planetary surface outposts. This paper discusses how a small-diameter modular system can address functional requirements, mass and volume constraints, and operational scenarios.

  14. Planetary geology in the 1980s

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Veverka, J.

    1984-01-01

    The geologic aspects of solar system studies are defined and the goals of planetary geology are discussed. Planetary geology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of matter condensed in the form of planets, satellites, asteroids, and comets. It is a multidisciplinary effort involving investigators with backgrounds in geology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geodesy, cartography, and other disciplines concerned with the solid planets. The report is primarily restricted to the kinds of experiments and observations made through unmanned missions.

  15. A Planetary Park system for the Moon and beyond

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cockell, Charles; Horneck, Gerda

    Deutschland International space exploration programs foresee the establishment of human settlements on the Moon and on Mars within the next decades, following a series of robotic precursor missions. These increasing robotic visits and eventual human exploration and settlements may have an environmental impact on scientifically important sites and sites of natural beauty in the form of contamination with microorganisms and spacecraft parts, or even pollution as a consequence of in situ resource use. This concern has already been reflected in the Moon Treaty, "The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" of the United Nations, which follows the Outer Space Treaty of the UN. However, so far, the Moon Treaty has not been ratified by any nation which engages in human space programs or has plans to do so. Planetary protection guidelines as formulated by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) are based on the Outer Space Treaty and follow the objectives: (i) to prevent contamination by terrestrial microorganisms if this might jeopardize scientific investi-gations of possible extraterrestrial life forms, and (ii) to protect the Earth from the potential hazard posed by extraterrestrial material brought back to the Earth. As a consequence, they group exploratory missions according to the type of mission and target body in five different categories, requesting specific means of cleaning and sterilization. However, the protection of extraterrestrial environments might also encompass ethical and other non-instrumental reasons. In order to allow intense scientific research and exploitation, and on the other hand to preserve regions of the Moon for research and use by future generations, we proposed the introduction of a planetary (or lunar) park system, which would protect areas of scientific, historic and intrinsic value under a common scheme. A similar placePlaceNamePlanetary PlaceTypePark system could be established on Mars well

  16. Enviromnental Control and Life Support Systems for Mars Missions - Issues and Concerns for Planetary Protection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barta, Daniel J.; Anderson, Molly S.; Lange, Kevin

    2015-01-01

    Planetary protection represents an additional set of requirements that generally have not been considered by developers of technologies for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). Planetary protection guidelines will affect the kind of operations, processes, and functions that can take place during future human planetary exploration missions. Ultimately, there will be an effect on mission costs, including the mission trade space when planetary protection requirements begin to drive vehicle deisgn in a concrete way. Planetary protection requirements need to be considered early in technology development and mission programs in order to estimate these impacts and push back on requirements or find efficient ways to perform necessary functions. It is expected that planetary protection will be a significant factor during technology selection and system architecture design for future missions.

  17. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE 0.94-DAY PERIOD TRANSITING PLANETARY SYSTEM WASP-18

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Southworth, John; Anderson, D. R.; Maxted, P. F. L.

    2009-12-10

    We present high-precision photometry of five consecutive transits of WASP-18, an extrasolar planetary system with one of the shortest orbital periods known. Through the use of telescope defocusing we achieve a photometric precision of 0.47-0.83 mmag per observation over complete transit events. The data are analyzed using the JKTEBOP code and three different sets of stellar evolutionary models. We find the mass and radius of the planet to be M {sub b} = 10.43 +- 0.30 +- 0.24 M {sub Jup} and R {sub b} = 1.165 +- 0.055 +- 0.014 R {sub Jup} (statistical and systematic errors), respectively. Themore » systematic errors in the orbital separation and the stellar and planetary masses, arising from the use of theoretical predictions, are of a similar size to the statistical errors and set a limit on our understanding of the WASP-18 system. We point out that seven of the nine known massive transiting planets (M {sub b} > 3 M {sub Jup}) have eccentric orbits, whereas significant orbital eccentricity has been detected for only four of the 46 less-massive planets. This may indicate that there are two different populations of transiting planets, but could also be explained by observational biases. Further radial velocity observations of low-mass planets will make it possible to choose between these two scenarios.« less

  18. Measuring the accelerating effect of the planetary-scale waves on Venus observed with UVI/AKATSUKI and ground-based telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Imai, M.; Kouyama, T.; Takahashi, Y.; Watanabe, S.; Yamazaki, A.; Yamada, M.; Nakamura, M.; Satoh, T.; Imamura, T.; Nakaoka, T.; Kawabata, M.; Yamanaka, M.; Kawabata, K. S.

    2017-12-01

    Venus has a global cloud layer, and the atmosphere rotates with the speed over 100 m/s. The scattering of solar radiance and absorber in clouds cause the strong dark and bright contrast in 365 nm unknown absorption bands. The Japanese Venus orbiter AKATSUKI and the onboard instrument UVI capture 100 km mesoscale cloud features over the entire visible dayside area. In contrast, planetary-scale features are observed when the orbiter is at the moderate distance from Venus and when the Sun-Venus-orbiter phase angle is smaller than 45 deg. Cloud top wind velocity was measured with the mesoscale cloud tracking technique, however, observations of the propagation velocity and its variation of the planetary-scale feature are not well conducted because of the limitation of the observable area. The purpose of the study is measuring the effect of wind acceleration by planetary-scale waves. Each cloud motion can be represented as the wind and phase velocity of the planetary-scale waves, respectively. We conducted simultaneous observations of the zonal motion of both mesoscale and planetary-scale feature using UVI/AKATSUKI and ground-based Pirka and Kanata telescopes in Japan. Our previous ground-based observation revealed the periodicity change of planetary-scale waves with a time scale of a couple of months. For the initial analysis of UVI images, we used the time-consecutive images taken in the orbit #32. During this orbit (from Nov. 13 to 20, 2016), 7 images were obtained with 2 hr time-interval in a day whose spatial resolution ranged from 10-35 km. To investigate the typical mesoscale cloud motion, the Gaussian-filters with sigma = 3 deg. were used to smooth geometrically mapped images with 0.25 deg. resolution. Then the amount of zonal shift for each 5 deg. latitudinal bands between the pairs of two time-consecutive images were estimated by searching the 2D cross-correlation maximum. The final wind velocity (or rotation period) for mesoscale features were determined with

  19. Precise masses for the transiting planetary system HD 106315 with HARPS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barros, S. C. C.; Gosselin, H.; Lillo-Box, J.; Bayliss, D.; Delgado Mena, E.; Brugger, B.; Santerne, A.; Armstrong, D. J.; Adibekyan, V.; Armstrong, J. D.; Barrado, D.; Bento, J.; Boisse, I.; Bonomo, A. S.; Bouchy, F.; Brown, D. J. A.; Cochran, W. D.; Collier Cameron, A.; Deleuil, M.; Demangeon, O.; Díaz, R. F.; Doyle, A.; Dumusque, X.; Ehrenreich, D.; Espinoza, N.; Faedi, F.; Faria, J. P.; Figueira, P.; Foxell, E.; Hébrard, G.; Hojjatpanah, S.; Jackman, J.; Lendl, M.; Ligi, R.; Lovis, C.; Melo, C.; Mousis, O.; Neal, J. J.; Osborn, H. P.; Pollacco, D.; Santos, N. C.; Sefako, R.; Shporer, A.; Sousa, S. G.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Udry, S.; Vigan, A.; Wyttenbach, A.

    2017-12-01

    Context. The multi-planetary system HD 106315 was recently found in K2 data. The planets have periods of Pb 9.55 and Pc 21.06 days, and radii of rb = 2.44 ± 0.17 R⊕ and rc = 4.35 ± 0.23 R⊕ . The brightness of the host star (V = 9.0 mag) makes it an excellent target for transmission spectroscopy. However, to interpret transmission spectra it is crucial to measure the planetary masses. Aims: We obtained high precision radial velocities for HD 106315 to determine the mass of the two transiting planets discovered with Kepler K2. Our successful observation strategy was carefully tailored to mitigate the effect of stellar variability. Methods: We modelled the new radial velocity data together with the K2 transit photometry and a new ground-based partial transit of HD 106315c to derive system parameters. Results: We estimate the mass of HD 106315b to be 12.6 ± 3.2 M⊕ and the density to be 4.7 ± 1.7 g cm-3, while for HD 106315c we estimate a mass of 15.2 ± 3.7 M⊕ and a density of 1.01 ± 0.29 g cm-3. Hence, despite planet c having a radius almost twice as large as planet b, their masses are consistent with one another. Conclusions: We conclude that HD 106315c has a thick hydrogen-helium gaseous envelope. A detailed investigation of HD 106315b using a planetary interior model constrains the core mass fraction to be 5-29%, and the water mass fraction to be 10-50%. An alternative, not considered by our model, is that HD 106315b is composed of a large rocky core with a thick H-He envelope. Transmission spectroscopy of these planets will give insight into their atmospheric compositions and also help constrain their core compositions. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme 198.C-0168.

  20. Where Do Messy Planetary Nebulae Come From?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2017-03-01

    triple stellar progenitor. The primary signs the authors look for are:SymmetriesIf a planetary nebula has a strong axisymmetric or point-symmetric structure (i.e., its bipolar, elliptical, spherical, etc.), it was likely not shaped by a triple progenitor. If clear symmetries are missing, however, or if there is a departure from symmetry in specific regions, the morphology of the planetary nebula may have been shaped by the presence of stars in a close triple system.Interaction with the interstellar mediumSome asymmetries, especially local ones, can be explained by interaction of the planetary nebula with the interstellar medium. The authors look for signs of such an interaction, which decreases the likelihood that a triple stellar system need be involved to produce the morphology we observe.Examples of planetary nebulae that are extremely likely to have been shaped by a triple stellar system. They have strong departures from symmetry and dont show signs of interacting with the interstellar medium. [Bear and Soker 2017]Influential TriosFrom the images in two planetary nebulae catalogs the Planetary Nebula Image Catelog and the HASH catalog Bear and Soker find that 275 and 372 planetary nebulae are categorizable, respectively. By assigning crude probabilities to their categories, the authors estimate that the total fraction of planetary nebulae shaped by three stars in a close system is around 1321%.The authors argue that in some cases, all three stars might survive. This means that we may be able to find direct evidence of these triple stellar systems lying in the hearts of especially messy planetary nebulae.CitationEaleal Bear and Noam Soker 2017 ApJL 837 L10. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa611c

  1. Voyager 1 Planetary Radio Astronomy Observations Near Jupiter

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Warwick, J. W.; Pearce, J. B.; Riddle, A. C.; Alexander, J. K.; Desch, M. D.; Kaiser, M. L.; Thieman, J. R.; Carr, T. B.; Gulkis, S.; Boischot, A.

    1979-01-01

    Results are reported from the first low frequency radio receiver to be transported into the Jupiter magnetosphere. Dramatic new information was obtained both because Voyager was near or in Jupiter's radio emission sources and also because it was outside the relatively dense solar wind plasma of the inner solar system. Extensive radio arcs, from above 30 MHz to about 1 MHz, occurred in patterns correlated with planetary longitude. A newly discovered kilometric wavelength radio source may relate to the plasma torus near Io's orbit. In situ wave resonances near closest approach define an electron density profile along the Voyager trajectory and form the basis for a map of the torus. Studies in progress are outlined briefly.

  2. Secular Resonances During Main-Sequence and Post-Main-Sequence Planetary System Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smallwood, Jeremy L.

    We investigate gravitational perturbations of an asteroid belt by secular resonances. We ap- ply analytic and numerical models to main-sequence and post-main-sequence planetary systems. First, we investigate how the asteroid impact rate on the Earth is affected by the architecture of the planetary system. We find that the nu6 resonance plays an important role in the asteroid collision rate with the Earth. Compared to exoplanetary systems, the solar system is somewhat special in its lack of a super-Earth mass planet in the inner solar system. We therefore consider the effects of the presence of a super-Earth in the terrestrial planet region. We find a significant effect for super-Earths with a mass of around 10 M_{Earth} and a separation greater than about 0.7 AU. These results have implications for the habitability of exoplanetary systems. Secondly, we model white dwarf pollution by asteroids from secular resonances. In the past few decades, observations have revealed signatures of metals polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs that require a continu- ous accretion of asteroids. We show that secular resonances driven by two outer companions can provide a source of pollution if an inner terrestrial planet is engulfed during the red-giant branch phase. Secular resonances may be a viable mechanism for the pollution of white dwarfs in a variety of exoplanetary system architectures including systems with two giant planets and systems with one giant planet and a binary star companion.

  3. Planetary submillimeter spectroscopy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Klein, M. J.

    1988-01-01

    The aim is to develop a comprehensive observational and analytical program to study solar system physics and meterology by measuring molecular lines in the millimeter and submillimeter spectra of planets and comets. A primary objective is to conduct observations with new JPL and Caltech submillimeter receivers at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. A secondary objective is to continue to monitor the time variable planetary phenomena (e.g., Jupiter and Uranus) at centimeter wavelength using the NASA antennas of the Deep Space Network (DSN).

  4. About 30% of Sun-like Stars Have Kepler-like Planetary Systems: A Study of Their Intrinsic Architecture

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Wei; Petrovich, Cristobal; Wu, Yanqin; Dong, Subo; Xie, Jiwei

    2018-06-01

    We constrain the intrinsic architecture of Kepler planetary systems by modeling the observed multiplicities of the transiting planets (tranets) and their transit timing variations (TTVs). We robustly determine that the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets, η Kepler, is 30 ± 3%. Here, Kepler-like planets are planets that have radii R p ≳ R ⊕ and orbital periods P < 400 days. Our result thus significantly revises previous claims that more than 50% of Sun-like stars have such planets. Combined with the average number of Kepler planets per star (∼0.9), we obtain that on average each planetary system has 3.0 ± 0.3 planets within 400 days. We also find that the dispersion in orbital inclinations of planets within a given planetary system, σ i,k , is a steep function of its number of planets, k. This can be parameterized as {σ }i,k\\propto {k}α and we find that ‑4 < α < ‑2 at the 2σ level. Such a distribution well describes the observed multiplicities of both transits and TTVs with no excess of single-tranet systems. Therefore we do not find evidence supporting the so-called “Kepler dichotomy.” Together with a previous study on orbital eccentricities, we now have a consistent picture: the fewer planets in a system, the hotter it is dynamically. We discuss briefly possible scenarios that lead to such a trend. Despite our solar system not belonging to the Kepler club, it is interesting to notice that the solar system also has three planets within 400 days and that the inclination dispersion is similar to Kepler systems of the same multiplicity.

  5. Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies Report

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazio, T. Joseph; Shkolnik, Evgenya; Hallinan, Gregg

    2017-05-01

    The W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) sponsored the "Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability" study to review the state of knowledge of extrasolar planetary magnetic fields and the prospects for their detection.There were multiple motivations for this Study. Planetary-scale magnetic fields are a window to a planet's interior and provide shielding of the planet's atmosphere. The Earth, Mercury, Ganymede, and the giant planets of the solar system all contain internal dynamo currents that generate planetary-scale magnetic fields. In turn, these internal dynamo currents arise from differential rotation, convection, compositional dynamics, or a combination of these in objects' interiors. If coupled to an energy source, such as the incident kinetic or magnetic energy from the solar wind or an orbiting satellite, a planet's magnetic field can produce intense electron cyclotron masers in its magnetic polar regions. The most well known example of this process in the solar system is the Jovian decametric emission, but all of the giant planets and the Earth contain similar electron cyclotron masers within their magnetospheres. Extrapolated to extrasolar planets, the remote detection of the magnetic field of an extrasolar planet would provide a means of obtaining constraints on the thermal state, composition, and dynamics of its interior--all of which will be difficult to determine by other means--as well as improved understanding of the basic planetary dynamo process.We review the findings from the Study, including potential mission concepts that emerged and recent developments toward one of the mission concepts, a space-based radio wavelength array. There was an identification of that radio wavelength observations would likely be key to making significant progress in this field.We acknowledge ideas and advice from the participants in the "Planetary Magnetic Fields: Planetary Interiors and Habitability" study organized by the W. M. Keck

  6. The architecture and formation of the Kepler-30 planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Panichi, F.; Goździewski, K.; Migaszewski, C.; Szuszkiewicz, E.

    2018-04-01

    We study the orbital architecture, physical characteristics of planets, formation and long-term evolution of the Kepler-30 planetary system, detected and announced in 2012 by the KEPLER team. We show that the Kepler-30 system belongs to a particular class of very compact and quasi-resonant, yet long-term stable planetary systems. We re-analyse the light curves of the host star spanning Q1-Q17 quarters of the KEPLER mission. A huge variability of the Transit Timing Variations (TTV) exceeding 2 days is induced by a massive Jovian planet located between two Neptune-like companions. The innermost pair is near to the 2:1 mean motion resonance (MMR), and the outermost pair is close to higher order MMRs, such as 17:7 and 7:3. Our re-analysis of photometric data allows us to constrain, better than before, the orbital elements, planets' radii and masses, which are 9.2 ± 0.1, 536 ± 5, and 23.7 ± 1.3 Earth masses for Kepler-30b, Kepler-30c and Kepler-30d, respectively. The masses of the inner planets are determined within ˜1% uncertainty. We infer the internal structures of the Kepler-30 planets and their bulk densities in a wide range from (0.19 ± 0.01) g.cm-3 for Kepler-30d, (0.96 ± 0.15) g.cm-3 for Kepler-30b, to (1.71 ± 0.13) g.cm-3 for the Jovian planet Kepler-30c. We attempt to explain the origin of this unique planetary system and a deviation of the orbits from exact MMRs through the planetary migration scenario. We anticipate that the Jupiter-like planet plays an important role in determining the present dynamical state of this system.

  7. Impact of Space Transportation System on planetary spacecraft and missions design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barnett, P. M.

    1975-01-01

    Results of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) activities to define and understand alternatives for planetary spacecraft operations with the Space Transportation System (STS) are summarized. The STS presents a set of interfaces, operational alternatives, and constraints in the prelaunch, launch, and near-earth flight phases of a mission. Shuttle-unique features are defined and coupled with JPL's existing program experience to begin development of operationally efficient alternatives, concepts, and methods for STS-launched missions. The time frame considered begins with the arrival of the planetary spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center and includes prelaunch ground operations, Shuttle-powered flight, and near-earth operations, up to acquisition of the spacecraft signal by the Deep Space Network. The areas selected for study within this time frame were generally chosen because they represent the 'driving conditions' on planetary-mission as well as system design and operations.

  8. Use of a multimission system for cost effective support of planetary science data processing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Green, William B.

    1994-01-01

    JPL's Multimission Operations Systems Office (MOSO) provides a multimission facility at JPL for processing science instrument data from NASA's planetary missions. This facility, the Multimission Image Processing System (MIPS), is developed and maintained by MOSO to meet requirements that span the NASA family of planetary missions. Although the word 'image' appears in the title, MIPS is used to process instrument data from a variety of science instruments. This paper describes the design of a new system architecture now being implemented within the MIPS to support future planetary mission activities at significantly reduced operations and maintenance cost.

  9. Long-Period Planets in Open Clusters and the Evolution of Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quinn, Samuel N.; White, Russel; Latham, David W.; Stefanik, Robert

    2018-01-01

    Recent discoveries of giant planets in open clusters confirm that they do form and migrate in relatively dense stellar groups, though overall occurrence rates are not yet well constrained because the small sample of giant planets discovered thus far predominantly have short periods. Moreover, planet formation rates and the architectures of planetary systems in clusters may vary significantly -- e.g., due to intercluster differences in the chemical properties that regulate the growth of planetary embryos or in the stellar space density and binary populations, which can influence the dynamical evolution of planetary systems. Constraints on the population of long-period Jovian planets -- those representing the reservoir from which many hot Jupiters likely form, and which are most vulnerable to intracluster dynamical interactions -- can help quantify how the birth environment affects formation and evolution, particularly through comparison of populations possessing a range of ages and chemical and dynamical properties. From our ongoing RV survey of open clusters, we present the discovery of several long-period planets and candidate substellar companions in the Praesepe, Coma Berenices, and Hyades open clusters. From these discoveries, we improve estimates of giant planet occurrence rates in clusters, and we note that high eccentricities in several of these systems support the prediction that the birth environment helps shape planetary system architectures.

  10. Validating early stellar encounters as the cause of dynamically hot planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kalas, Paul

    2017-08-01

    One of the key questions concerning exoplanetary systems is why some are dynamically cold, such as TRAPPIST-1, whereas others are dynamically hot, with highly eccentric planets and/or perturbed debris disks. Dynamical theory describes a variety of plausible mechanisms, but few can be empirically tested since the critical dynamical evolution that sets the final planetary architecture is short-lived. One rare system available for testing dynamical upheaval scenarios is the 400 Myr-old Fomalhaut system. In Cycle 22 we coronagraphically studied Fomalhaut C, which is a wide M-dwarf companion to Fomalhaut A, in order to test our prediction that the unresolved, Herschel-detected debris disk around Fomalhaut C may be highly perturbed because of a recent close interaction with Fomalhaut A. Using HST/STIS we discovered a highly asymmetric feature extending northward of Fomalhaut C by 3 that resembles our model of a dynamically hot disk. However, it may be a background galaxy and the definitive test of its physical relationship to Fomalhaut C is to demonstrate common proper motion. Using Keck adaptive optics follow-up observations in J band, we did not detect the feature, and hence follow-up HST observations are the only way to test for common proper motion. Here we request a very small program to revisit Fomalhaut C with STIS in order to validate the initial discovery as a debris disk (1 proper motion between HST epochs). The astrophysical significance is demonstrating that the Fomalhaut system is a valuable case for studying dynamical upheavals via stellar encounters that are inferred to occur in the evolution of many other planetary systems.

  11. An Assessment of Ground-Based Techniques for Detecting Other Planetary Systems. Volume 2: Position papers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Black, D. C.; Brunk, W. E.

    1980-01-01

    The capabilities of several astronomical interferomenter system concepts are assessed and the effects of the Earth's atmosphere on astrometric precision are examined in detail. Included is an examination of the use of small aperture interferometry to detect planets in binary star systems. It is estimated that, for differential astrometric observation, an amplitude interferometer having two separate telescopes should permit observations of stars as faint as 14th magnitude and a positional accuracy of 0.00005 arc-sec. Instrumental, atmospheric, and photon noise errors that apply to interferometric observation are examined. It is suggested that the effects of atmospheric turbulence may be eliminated with the use of two color refractometer systems. Several sites for future telescopes dedicated to the search for planetary systems are identified.

  12. Lidar observations of vertically organized convection in the planetary boundary layer over the ocean

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Melfi, S. H.; Spinhirne, J. D.; Chou, S.-H.; Palm, S. P.

    1985-01-01

    Observations of a convective planetary boundary layer (PBL) were made with an airborne, downward-looking lidar system over the Atlantic Ocean during a cold air outbreak. The lidar data revealed well-organized, regularly spaced cellular convection with dominant spacial scales between two and four times the height of the boundary layer. It is demonstrated that the lidar can accurately measure the structure of the PBL with high vertical and horizontal resolution. Parameters important for PBL modeling such as entrainment zone thickness, entrainment rate, PBL height and relative heat flux can be inferred from the lidar data. It is suggested that wind shear at the PBL top may influence both entrainment and convective cell size.

  13. Stability Analysis of the Planetary System Orbiting Upsilon Andromedae

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Rivera, Eugenio J.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    We present results of long-term numerical orbital integrations designed to test the stability of the three-planet system orbiting Upsilon Andromedae and short-term integrations to test whether mutual perturbations among the planets can be used to determine planetary masses. Our initial conditions are based on the latest fits to the radial velocity data obtained by the planet-search group at Lick Observatory. The new fits result in significantly more stable systems than did the initially announced planetary parameters. An analytic analysis of the star and the two outer planets shows that this subsystem is Hill stable up to five. Our integrations involving all three planets show that the system is stable for at least 100 Myr for up to four. In our simulations, we still see a secular resonance between the outer two planets and in some cases large oscillations in the eccentricity of the inner planet.

  14. On the detection of other planetary systems by astrometric techniques

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Black, D. C.; Scargle, J. D.

    1982-01-01

    A quantitative method for astrometrically detecting perturbations induced in a star's motion by the presence of a planetary object is described. A periodogram is defined, wherein signals observed from a star show exactly periodic variations, which can be extracted from observational data using purely statistical methods. A detection threshold is defined for the frequency of occurrence of some detectable signal, e.g., the Nyquist frequency. Possible effects of a stellar orbital eccentricity and multiple companions are discussed, noting that assumption of a circular orbit assures the spectral purity of the signal described. The periodogram technique was applied to 12 yr of astrometric data from the U.S. Naval Observatory for three stars with low mass stellar companions. Periodic perturbations were confirmed. A comparison of the accuracy of different astrometric systems shows that the detection accuracy of a system is determined by the measurement accuracy and the number of observations, although the detection efficiency can be maximized by minimizing the number of data points for the case when observational errors are proportional to the square root of the number of data points. It is suggested that a space-based astrometric telescope is best suited to take advantage of the method.

  15. Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cezzar, Ruknet; Sen, Ranjan K.

    1989-01-01

    The Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER) project is essentially research oriented towards technology insertion issues for NASA's unmanned planetary probes. It was initiated to complement and augment the long-term efforts for space exploration with particular reference to NASA/LaRC's (NASA Langley Research Center) research needs for planetary exploration missions of the mid and late 1990s. The requirements for space missions as given in the somewhat dated Advanced Information Processing Systems (AIPS) requirements document are contrasted with the new requirements from JPL/Caltech involving sensor data capture and scene analysis. It is shown that more stringent requirements have arisen as a result of technological advancements. Two possible architectures, the AIPS Proof of Concept (POC) configuration and the MAX Fault-tolerant dataflow multiprocessor, were evaluated. The main observation was that the AIPS design is biased towards fault tolerance and may not be an ideal architecture for planetary and deep space probes due to high cost and complexity. The MAX concepts appears to be a promising candidate, except that more detailed information is required. The feasibility for adding neural computation capability to this architecture needs to be studied. Key impact issues for architectural design of computing systems meant for planetary missions were also identified.

  16. Voyager 1 planetary radio astronomy observations near jupiter.

    PubMed

    Warwick, J W; Pearce, J B; Riddle, A C; Alexander, J K; Desch, M D; Kaiser, M L; Thieman, J R; Carr, T D; Gulkis, S; Boischot, A; Harvey, C C; Pedersen, B M

    1979-06-01

    We report results from the first low-frequency radio receiver to be transported into the Jupiter magnetosphere. We obtained dramatic new information, both because Voyager was near or in Jupiter's radio emission sources and also because it was outside the relatively dense solar wind plasma of the inner solar system. Extensive radio spectral arcs, from above 30 to about 1 megahertz, occurred in patterns correlated with planetary longitude. A newly discovered kilometric wavelength radio source may relate to the plasma torus near Io's orbit. In situ wave resonances near closest approach define an electron density profile along the Voyager trajectory and form the basis for a map of the torus. Detailed studies are in progress and are out-lined briefly.

  17. Radial Velocity Detection of Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cochran, William D.

    2004-01-01

    This NASA Origins Program grant supported four closely related research programs at The University of Texas at Austin: 1) The McDonald Observatory Planetary Search (MOPS) Program, using the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Harlan Smith telescope and its 2dcoude spectrometer, 2) A high-precision radial-velocity survey of Hyades dwarfs, using the Keck telescope and its HIRES spectrograph, 3) A program at McDonald Observatory to obtain spectra of the parent stars of planetary systems at R = 210,000, and 4) the start of high precision radial velocity surveys using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The most important results from NASA support of these research programs are described. A list of all papers published under support of this grant is included at the end.

  18. The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems Artist Concept

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2004-10-18

    This artist concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. NASA Spitzer Space Telescope show that these catastrophes continue to occur around stars even after they have developed full-sized planets.

  19. Demonstration of Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) Performance for Planetary and Geostationary Earth Observing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Revercomb, Henry E.; Sromovsky, Lawrence A.; Fry, Patrick M.; Best, Fred A.; LaPorte, Daniel D.

    2001-01-01

    The combination of massively parallel spatial sampling and accurate spectral radiometry offered by imaging FTS makes it extremely attractive for earth and planetary remote sensing. We constructed a breadboard instrument to help assess the potential for planetary applications of small imaging FTS instruments in the 1 - 5 micrometer range. The results also support definition of the NASA Geostationary Imaging FTS (GIFTS) instrument that will make key meteorological and climate observations from geostationary earth orbit. The Planetary Imaging FTS (PIFTS) breadboard is based on a custom miniaturized Bomen interferometer that uses corner cube reflectors, a wishbone pivoting voice-coil delay scan mechanism, and a laser diode metrology system. The interferometer optical output is measured by a commercial infrared camera procured from Santa Barbara Focalplane. It uses an InSb 128x128 detector array that covers the entire FOV of the instrument when coupled with a 25 mm focal length commercial camera lens. With appropriate lenses and cold filters the instrument can be used from the visible to 5 micrometers. The delay scan is continuous, but slow, covering the maximum range of +/- 0.4 cm in 37.56 sec at a rate of 500 image frames per second. Image exposures are timed to be centered around predicted zero crossings. The design allows for prediction algorithms that account for the most recent fringe rate so that timing jitter produced by scan speed variations can be minimized. Response to a fixed source is linear with exposure time nearly to the point of saturation. Linearity with respect to input variations was demonstrated to within 0.16% using a 3-point blackbody calibration. Imaging of external complex scenes was carried out at low and high spectral resolution. These require full complex calibration to remove background contributions that vary dramatically over the instrument FOV. Testing is continuing to demonstrate the precise radiometric accuracy and noise characteristics.

  20. The Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oliversen, R. J.; Harris, W. M.

    2002-05-01

    The NASA Sun-Earth Connection theme roadmap calls for comparative studies of planetary, cometary, and local interstellar medium (LISM) interaction with the Sun and solar variability. Through such studies, we advance our understanding of basic physical plasma and gas dynamic processes, thus increasing our predictive capabilities for the terrestrial, planetary, and interplanetary environments where future remote and human exploration will occur. Because the other planets have lacked study initiatives comparable to the STP, LWS, and EOS programs, our understanding of the upper atmospheres and near space environments on these worlds is far less detailed than our knowledge of the Earth. To close this gap, we propose a mission to study the solar interaction with bodies throughout our solar system and the heliopause with a single remote sensing space observatory, the Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments (SCOPE). SCOPE consists of a binocular EUV/UV telescope operating from a heliocentric, Earth-trailing orbit that provides high observing efficiency, sub-arcsecond imaging and broadband medium resolution spectro-imaging over the 55-290 nm bandpass, and high resolution (R>105) H Ly-α emission line profile measurements of small scale planetary and wide field diffuse solar system structures. A key to the SCOPE approach is to include Earth as a primary science target. The other planets and comets will be monitored in long duration campaigns centered, when possible, on solar opposition when interleaved terrestrial-planet observations can be used to directly compare the response of both worlds to the same solar wind stream and UV radiation field. Using the combination of SCOPE observations and models including MHD, general circulation, and radiative transfer, we will isolate the different controlling parameters in each planet system and gain insight into the underlying physical processes that define the solar connection.

  1. The Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oliversen, Ronald J.; Harris, Walter M.; Oegerle, William R. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    The NASA Sun-Earth Connection theme roadmap calls for comparative study of how the planets, comets, and local interstellar medium (LISM) interact with the Sun and respond to solar variability. Through such a study we advance our understanding of basic physical plasma and gas dynamic processes, thus increasing our predictive capabilities for the terrestrial, planetary, and interplanetary environments where future remote and human exploration will occur. Because the other planets have lacked study initiatives comparable to the terrestrial ITM, LWS, and EOS programs, our understanding of the upper atmospheres and near space environments on these worlds is far less detailed than our knowledge of the Earth. To close this gap we propose a mission to study {\\it all) of the solar interacting bodies in our planetary system out to the heliopause with a single remote sensing space observatory, the Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments (SCOPE). SCOPE consists of a binocular EUV/FUV telescope operating from a remote, driftaway orbit that provides sub-arcsecond imaging and broadband medium resolution spectro-imaging over the 55-290 nm bandpass, and high (R>10$^{5}$ resolution H Ly-$\\alpha$ emission line profile measurements of small scale planetary and wide field diffuse solar system structures. A key to the SCOPE approach is to include Earth as a primary science target. From its remote vantage point SCOPE will be able to observe auroral emission to and beyond the rotational pole. The other planets and comets will be monitored in long duration campaigns centered when possible on solar opposition when interleaved terrestrial-planet observations can be used to directly compare the response of both worlds to the same solar wind stream and UV radiation field. Using a combination of observations and MHD models, SCOPE will isolate the different controlling parameters in each planet system and gain insight into the underlying physical processes that define the

  2. The formation of planetary systems during the evolution of close binary stars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tutukov, A. V.

    1991-08-01

    Modern scenarios of the formation of planetary systems around single stars and products of merging close binaries are described. The frequencies of the realization of different scenarios in the Galaxy are estimated. It is concluded that the modern theory of the early stages of the evolution of single stars and the theory of the evolution of close binaries offer several possible versions for the origin of planetary systems, while the scenario dating back to Kant and Laplace remains the likeliest.

  3. The effect of latent heat release on synoptic-to-planetary wave interactions and its implication for satellite observations: Theoretical modeling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Branscome, Lee E.; Bleck, Rainer; Obrien, Enda

    1990-01-01

    The project objectives are to develop process models to investigate the interaction of planetary and synoptic-scale waves including the effects of latent heat release (precipitation), nonlinear dynamics, physical and boundary-layer processes, and large-scale topography; to determine the importance of latent heat release for temporal variability and time-mean behavior of planetary and synoptic-scale waves; to compare the model results with available observations of planetary and synoptic wave variability; and to assess the implications of the results for monitoring precipitation in oceanic-storm tracks by satellite observing systems. Researchers have utilized two different models for this project: a two-level quasi-geostrophic model to study intraseasonal variability, anomalous circulations and the seasonal cycle, and a 10-level, multi-wave primitive equation model to validate the two-level Q-G model and examine effects of convection, surface processes, and spherical geometry. It explicitly resolves several planetary and synoptic waves and includes specific humidity (as a predicted variable), moist convection, and large-scale precipitation. In the past year researchers have concentrated on experiments with the multi-level primitive equation model. The dynamical part of that model is similar to the spectral model used by the National Meteorological Center for medium-range forecasts. The model includes parameterizations of large-scale condensation and moist convection. To test the validity of results regarding the influence of convective precipitation, researchers can use either one of two different convective schemes in the model, a Kuo convective scheme or a modified Arakawa-Schubert scheme which includes downdrafts. By choosing one or the other scheme, they can evaluate the impact of the convective parameterization on the circulation. In the past year researchers performed a variety of initial-value experiments with the primitive-equation model. Using initial

  4. The case for 6-component ground motion observations in planetary seismology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joshi, Rakshit; van Driel, Martin; Donner, Stefanie; Nunn, Ceri; Wassermann, Joachim; Igel, Heiner

    2017-04-01

    The imminent INSIGHT mission will place a single seismic station on Mars to learn more about the structure of the Martian interior. Due to cost and difficulty, only single stations are currently feasible for planetary missions. We show that future single station missions should also measure rotational ground motions, in addition to the classic 3 components of translational motion. The joint, collocated, 6 component (6C) observations offer access to additional information that can otherwise only be obtained through seismic array measurements or are associated with large uncertainties. An example is the access to local phase velocity information from measurements of amplitude ratios of translations and rotations. When surface waves are available, this implies (in principle) that 1D velocity models can be estimated from Love wave dispersion curves. In addition, rotational ground motion observations can distinguish between Love and Rayleigh waves as well as S and P type motions. Wave propagation directions can be estimated by maximizing (or minimizing) coherence between translational and rotational motions. In combination with velocity-depth estimates, locations of seismic sources can be determined from a single station with little or no prior knowledge of the velocity structure. We demonstrate these points with both theoretical and real data examples using the vertical component of motion from ring laser recordings at Wettzell and all components of motion from the ROMY ring near Munich. Finally, we present the current state of technology concerning portable rotation sensors and discuss the relevance to planetary seismology.

  5. A primordial origin for misalignments between stellar spin axes and planetary orbits.

    PubMed

    Batygin, Konstantin

    2012-11-15

    The existence of gaseous giant planets whose orbits lie close to their host stars ('hot Jupiters') can largely be accounted for by planetary migration associated with viscous evolution of proto-planetary nebulae. Recently, observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect during planetary transits have revealed that a considerable fraction of hot Jupiters are on orbits that are misaligned with respect to the spin axes of their host stars. This observation has cast doubt on the importance of disk-driven migration as a mechanism for producing hot Jupiters. Here I show that misaligned orbits can be a natural consequence of disk migration in binary systems whose orbital plane is uncorrelated with the spin axes of the individual stars. The gravitational torques arising from the dynamical evolution of idealized proto-planetary disks under perturbations from massive distant bodies act to misalign the orbital planes of the disks relative to the spin poles of their host stars. As a result, I suggest that in the absence of strong coupling between the angular momentum of the disk and that of the host star, or of sufficient dissipation that acts to realign the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbits, the fraction of planetary systems (including systems of 'hot Neptunes' and 'super-Earths') whose angular momentum vectors are misaligned with respect to their host stars will be commensurate with the rate of primordial stellar multiplicity.

  6. Dynamical habitability of planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Dvorak, Rudolf; Pilat-Lohinger, Elke; Bois, Eric; Schwarz, Richard; Funk, Barbara; Beichman, Charles; Danchi, William; Eiroa, Carlos; Fridlund, Malcolm; Henning, Thomas; Herbst, Tom; Kaltenegger, Lisa; Lammer, Helmut; Léger, Alain; Liseau, René; Lunine, Jonathan; Paresce, Francesco; Penny, Alan; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Röttgering, Huub; Selsis, Frank; Schneider, Jean; Stam, Daphne; Tinetti, Giovanna; White, Glenn J

    2010-01-01

    The problem of the stability of planetary systems, a question that concerns only multiplanetary systems that host at least two planets, is discussed. The problem of mean motion resonances is addressed prior to discussion of the dynamical structure of the more than 350 known planets. The difference with regard to our own Solar System with eight planets on low eccentricity is evident in that 60% of the known extrasolar planets have orbits with eccentricity e > 0.2. We theoretically highlight the studies concerning possible terrestrial planets in systems with a Jupiter-like planet. We emphasize that an orbit of a particular nature only will keep a planet within the habitable zone around a host star with respect to the semimajor axis and its eccentricity. In addition, some results are given for individual systems (e.g., Gl777A) with regard to the stability of orbits within habitable zones. We also review what is known about the orbits of planets in double-star systems around only one component (e.g., gamma Cephei) and around both stars (e.g., eclipsing binaries).

  7. NASA planetary data: applying planetary satellite remote sensing data in the classroom

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liggett, P.; Dobinson, E.; Sword, B.; Hughes, D.; Martin, M.; Martin, D.

    2002-01-01

    NASA supports several data archiving and distribution mechanisms that provide a means whereby scientists can participate in education and outreach through the use of technology for data and information dissemination. The Planetary Data System (PDS) is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science. Its purpose is to ensure the long-term usability of NASA data and to stimulate advanced research. In addition, the NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF), an international system of planetary image libraries, maintains photographic and digital data as well as mission documentation and cartographic data.

  8. Planetary Rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Esposito, Larry

    2014-03-01

    Preface: a personal view of planetary rings; 1. Introduction: the allure of the ringed planets; 2. Studies of planetary rings 1610-2013; 3. Diversity of planetary rings; 4. Individual ring particles and their collisions; 5. Large-scale ring evolution; 6. Moons confine and sculpt rings; 7. Explaining ring phenomena; 8. N-body simulations; 9. Stochastic models; 10. Age and evolution of rings; 11. Saturn's mysterious F ring; 12. Uranus' rings and moons; 13. Neptune's partial rings; 14. Jupiter's ring-moon system after Galileo and New Horizons; 15. Ring photometry; 16. Dusty rings; 17. Concluding remarks; Afterword; Glossary; References; Index.

  9. Significant achievements in the Planetary Geology Program. [geologic processes, comparative planetology, and solar system evolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Head, J. W. (Editor)

    1978-01-01

    Developments reported at a meeting of principal investigators for NASA's planetology geology program are summarized. Topics covered include: constraints on solar system formation; asteriods, comets, and satellites; constraints on planetary interiors; volatiles and regoliths; instrument development techniques; planetary cartography; geological and geochemical constraints on planetary evolution; fluvial processes and channel formation; volcanic processes; Eolian processes; radar studies of planetary surfaces; cratering as a process, landform, and dating method; and the Tharsis region of Mars. Activities at a planetary geology field conference on Eolian processes are reported and techniques recommended for the presentation and analysis of crater size-frequency data are included.

  10. Advances in SPICE Support of Planetary Science

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Acton, C. H.

    2013-01-01

    SPICE is the de facto international standard for determining the geometric conditions-parameters such as altitude, lighting angles, and LAT/LON coverage of an instrument footprint-pertaining to scientific observations acquired by instruments on board robotic spacecraft. This system, comprised of data and allied software, is used for planning science observations and for analyzing the data returned from those observations. Use of SPICE is not a NASA requirement but is recommended by NASA's Planetary Data System and by the International Planetary Data Alliance. Owing in part to its reliability, stability, portability and user support, the use of SPICE has spread to many national space agencies, including those of the U.S., Europe (ESA), Japan, Russia and India. SPICE has been in use since the Magellan mission to Venus and so has many well-known capabilities. But the NAIF Team responsible for implementing SPICE continues to add new features; this presentation describes a number of these.

  11. The planetary data system educational CD-ROM

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Guinness, E. A.; Arvidson, R. E.; Martin, M.; Dueck, S.

    1993-01-01

    The Planetary Data System (PDS) is producing a special educational CD-ROM that contains samples of PDS datasets and is expected to be released in 1993. The CD-ROM will provide university-level instructors with PDS-compatible materials and information that can be used to construct student problem sets using real datasets. The main purposes of the CD-ROM are to facilitate wide use of planetary data and to introduce a large community to the PDS. To meet these objectives the Educational CD-ROM will also contain software to manipulate the data, background discussions about scientific questions that can be addressed with the data, and a suite of exercises that illustrate analysis techniques. Students will also be introduced to the SPICE concept, which is a new way of maintaining geometry and instrument information. The exercises will be presented at the freshman through graduate student levels. With simplification, some of the material should also be of use at the high school level.

  12. Radial Velocity Detection of Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cochran, William D.

    2004-01-01

    This NASA Origins Program grant supported four closely related research programs at The University of Texas at Austin: 1) The McDonald Observatory Planetary Search (MOPS) Program, using the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Harlan Smith telescope and its 2dcoud6 spectrometer, 2) A high-precision radial-velocity survey of Hyades dwarfs, using the Keck telescope and its HIRES spectrograph, 3) A program at McDonald Observatory to obtain spectra of the parent stars of planetary systems at R = 210,000, and 4) the start of high precision radial velocity surveys using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The most important results from NASA support of these research programs are described below. A list of all papers published under support of this grant is included at the end.

  13. A Population of planetary systems characterized by short-period, Earth-sized planets.

    PubMed

    Steffen, Jason H; Coughlin, Jeffrey L

    2016-10-25

    We analyze data from the Quarter 1-17 Data Release 24 (Q1-Q17 DR24) planet candidate catalog from NASA's Kepler mission, specifically comparing systems with single transiting planets to systems with multiple transiting planets, and identify a population of exoplanets with a necessarily distinct system architecture. Such an architecture likely indicates a different branch in their evolutionary past relative to the typical Kepler system. The key feature of these planetary systems is an isolated, Earth-sized planet with a roughly 1-d orbital period. We estimate that at least 24 of the 144 systems we examined ([Formula: see text]17%) are members of this population. Accounting for detection efficiency, such planetary systems occur with a frequency similar to the hot Jupiters.

  14. A Population of planetary systems characterized by short-period, Earth-sized planets

    PubMed Central

    Steffen, Jason H.; Coughlin, Jeffrey L.

    2016-01-01

    We analyze data from the Quarter 1–17 Data Release 24 (Q1–Q17 DR24) planet candidate catalog from NASA’s Kepler mission, specifically comparing systems with single transiting planets to systems with multiple transiting planets, and identify a population of exoplanets with a necessarily distinct system architecture. Such an architecture likely indicates a different branch in their evolutionary past relative to the typical Kepler system. The key feature of these planetary systems is an isolated, Earth-sized planet with a roughly 1-d orbital period. We estimate that at least 24 of the 144 systems we examined (≳17%) are members of this population. Accounting for detection efficiency, such planetary systems occur with a frequency similar to the hot Jupiters. PMID:27790984

  15. Stability Analysis of the Planetary System Orbiting Upsilon Andromedae. 2; Simulations Using New Lick Observatory Fits

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Rivera, Eugenio J.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    We present results of long-term numerical orbital integrations designed to test the stability of the three-planet system orbiting upsilon Andromedae and short-term integrations to test whether mutual perturbations among the planets can be used to determine planetary masses. Our initial conditions are based on recent fits to the radial velocity data obtained by the planet search group at Lick Observatory. The new fits result in significantly more stable systems than did the initially announced planetary parameters. Our integrations using the 2000 February parameters show that if the system is nearly planar, then it is stable for at least 100 Myr for m(sub f) = 1/sin i less than or = 4. In some stable systems, the eccentricity of the inner planet experiences large oscillations. The relative periastra of the outer two planets' orbits librate about 0 deg. in most of the stable systems; if future observations imply that the periastron longitudes of these planets are very closely aligned at the present epoch, dynamical simulations may provide precise estimates for the masses and orbital inclinations of these two planets.

  16. The Impact of Binary Companions on Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kraus, Adam L.; Ireland, Michael; Dupuy, Trent; Mann, Andrew; Huber, Daniel

    2018-01-01

    The majority of solar-type stars are found in binary systems, and the dynamical influence of binary companions is expected to profoundly influence planetary systems. However, the difficulty of identifying planets in binary systems has left the magnitude of this effect uncertain; despite numerous theoretical hurdles to their formation and survival, at least some binary systems clearly host planets. We present high-resolution imaging of nearly 500 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) obtained using adaptive-optics imaging and nonredundant aperture-mask interferometry on the Keck II telescope. We super-resolve some binary systems to projected separations of under 5 AU, showing that planets might form in these dynamically active environments. However, the full distribution of projected separations for our planet-host sample more broadly reveals a deep paucity of binary companions at solar-system scales. Our results demonstrate that a fifth of all solar-type stars in the Milky Way are disallowed from hosting planetary systems due to the influence of a binary companion. We now update these results with multi-epoch imaging to reject non-comoving background stars and securely identify even the least massive stellar companions, as well as tracing out the orbital motion of stellar companions. These results are beginning to reveal not just the fraction of binaries that do not host planets, but also potential explanations for planet survival even in some very close, dynamically active binary systems.

  17. Investigating Extra-solar Planetary System Qatar-1 through Transit Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thakur, Parijat; Mannaday, Vineet Kumar; Jiang, Ing-Guey; Sahu, Devendra Kumar; Chand, Swadesh

    2018-04-01

    We report the results of the transit timing variation (TTV) analysis of the extra-solar planet Qatar-1b using thirty eight light curves. Our analysis combines thirty five previously available transit light curves with three new transits observed by us between June 2016 and September 2016 using the 2-m Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (Hanle, India). From these transit data, the physical and orbital parameters of the Qatar-1 system are determined. In addition to this, the ephemeris for the orbital period and mid-transit time are refined to investigate the possible TTV. We find that the null-TTV model provides the better fit to the (O-C) data. This indicates that there is no evidence for TTVs to confirm the presence of additional planets in the Qatar-1 system. The use of the 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) operated by the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES, Nainital, India) could improve the photometric precision to examine the signature of TTVs in this system with a greater accuracy than in the present work.

  18. Polarimetry of Solar System Objects: Observations vs. Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yanamandra-Fisher, P. A.

    2014-04-01

    The overarching goals for the remote sensing and robotic exploration of planetary systems are: (1) understanding the formation of planetary systems and their diversity; and (2) search for habitability. Since all objects have unique polarimetric signatures inclusion of spectrophotopolarimetry as a complementary approach to standard techniques of imaging and spectroscopy, provides insight into the scattering properties of the planetary media. Specifically, linear and circular polarimetric signatures of the object arise from different physical processes and their study proves essential to the characterization of the object. Linear polarization of reflected light by various solar system objects provides insight into the scattering characteristics of atmospheric aerosols and hazes? and surficial properties of atmosphereless bodies. Many optically active materials are anisotropic and so their scattering properties differ with the object's principal axes (such as dichroic or birefringent materials) and are crystalline in structure instead of amorphous, (eg., the presence of olivines and silicates in cometary dust and circumstellar disks? Titan, etc.). Ices (water and other species) are abundant in the system indicated in their near - infrared spectra. Gas giants form outside the frost line (where ices condense), and their satellites and ring systems exhibit signature of water ice? clathrates, nonices (Si, C, Fe) in their NIR spectra and spectral dependence of linear polarization. Additionally, spectral dependence of polarization is important to separate the macroscopic (bulk) properties of the scattering medium from the microscopic (particulate) properties of the scattering medium. Circular polarization, on the other hand, is indicative of magnetic fields and biologically active molecules, necessary for habitability. These applications suffer from lack of detailed observations, instrumentation, dedicated missions and numericalretrieval methods. With recent discoveries and

  19. Proceedings of the 38th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2007-01-01

    The sessions in the conference include: Titan, Mars Volcanism, Mars Polar Layered Deposits, Early Solar System Isotopes, SPECIAL SESSION: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: New Ways of Studying the Red Planet, Achondrites: Exploring Oxygen Isotopes and Parent-Body Processes, Solar System Formation and Evolution, SPECIAL SESSION: SMART-1, . Impact Cratering: Observations and Experiments, SPECIAL SESSION: Volcanism and Tectonism on Saturnian Satellites, Solar Nebula Composition, Mars Fluvial Geomorphology, Asteroid Observations: Spectra, Mostly, Mars Sediments and Geochemistry: View from the Surface, Mars Tectonics and Crustal Dichotomy, Stardust: Wild-2 Revealed, Impact Cratering from Observations and Interpretations, Mars Sediments and Geochemistry: The Map View, Chondrules and Their Formation, Enceladus, Asteroids and Deep Impact: Structure, Dynamics, and Experiments, Mars Surface Process and Evolution, Martian Meteorites: Nakhlites, Experiments, and the Great Shergottite Age Debate, Stardust: Mainly Mineralogy, Astrobiology, Wind-Surface Interactions on Mars and Earth, Icy Satellite Surfaces, Venus, Lunar Remote Sensing, Space Weathering, and Impact Effects, Interplanetary Dust/Genesis, Mars Cratering: Counts and Catastrophes?, Chondrites: Secondary Processes, Mars Sediments and Geochemistry: Atmosphere, Soils, Brines, and Minerals, Lunar Interior and Differentiation, Mars Magnetics and Atmosphere: Core to Ionosphere, Metal-rich Chondrites, Organics in Chondrites, Lunar Impacts and Meteorites, Presolar/Solar Grains, Topics for Print Only papers are: Outer Planets/Satellites, Early Solar System, Interplanetary Dust, Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects, Asteroids and Meteoroids, Chondrites, Achondrites, Meteorite Related, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars, Astrobiology, Planetary Differentiation, Impacts, Mercury, Lunar Samples and Modeling, Venus, Missions and Instruments, Global Warming, Education and Public Outreach, Poster sessions are: Asteroids/Kuiper Belt Objects

  20. Revised planetary protection policy for solar system exploration.

    PubMed

    DeVincenzi, D L; Stabekis, P D

    1984-01-01

    In order to control contamination of planets by terrestrial microorganisms and organic constituents, U.S. planetary missions have been governed by a planetary protection (or planetary quarantine) policy which has changed little since 1972. This policy has recently been reviewed in light of new information obtained from planetary exploration during the past decade and because of changes to, or uncertainties in, some parameters used in the existing quantitative approach. On the basis of this analysis, a revised planetary protection policy with the following key features is proposed: deemphasizing the use of mathematical models and quantitative analyses; establishing requirements for target planet/mission type (i.e., orbiter, lander, etc.) combinations; considering sample return missions a separate category; simplifying documentation; and imposing implementing procedures (i.e., trajectory biasing, cleanroom assembly, spacecraft sterilization, etc.) by exception, i.e., only if the planet/mission combination warrants such controls.

  1. Planetary magnetospheres

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hill, T. W.; Michel, F. C.

    1975-01-01

    Space-probe observations of planetary magnetospheres are discussed. Three different categories of planetary magnetospheres are identified (intrinsic slowly rotating, intrinsic rapidly rotating, and induced), and the characteristics of each type are outlined. The structure and physical processes of the magnetospheres of Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter are described, and possible configurations are presented for the Martian and Jovian ones. Expected magnetic moments are derived for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Models are constructed for possible induced magnetospheres of the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Io.

  2. McDonald Observatory Planetary Search - A high precision stellar radial velocity survey for other planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cochran, William D.; Hatzes, Artie P.

    1993-01-01

    The McDonald Observatory Planetary Search program surveyed a sample of 33 nearby F, G, and K stars since September 1987 to search for substellar companion objects. Measurements of stellar radial velocity variations to a precision of better than 10 m/s were performed as routine observations to detect Jovian planets in orbit around solar type stars. Results confirm the detection of a companion object to HD114762.

  3. Advanced planetary studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1982-01-01

    Results of planetary advanced studies and planning support provided by Science Applications, Inc. staff members to Earth and Planetary Exploration Division, OSSA/NASA, for the period 1 February 1981 to 30 April 1982 are summarized. The scope of analyses includes cost estimation, planetary missions performance, solar system exploration committee support, Mars program planning, Galilean satellite mission concepts, and advanced propulsion data base. The work covers 80 man-months of research. Study reports and related publications are included in a bibliography section.

  4. Planetary Rings: a Brief History of Observation and Theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nicholson, P. D.

    2000-05-01

    Over several centuries, and extending down to today, the ring systems encircling Saturn and the other jovian planets have provided an endless source of speculation and theorizing for astronomers, theologians, and physicists. In the past two decades they have also become a testing ground for dynamical models of more distant astrophysical disks, such as those which surround protostars and even the stellar disks of spiral galaxies. I will review some of the early theories, and their sometimes rude confrontation with observational data, starting with Christiaan Huygens and touching on seminal contributions by Laplace, Bessel, Maxwell, Barnard, Russell (of H-R diagram fame) and Jeffreys. In the modern era, observations at infrared and radio wavelengths have revealed Saturn's rings to be composed of large chunks of almost pure water ice, and to have a vertical thickness measured in tens of meters. A renaissance in planetary rings studies occurred in the period 1977--1981, first with the discoveries of the narrow, dark and non-circular rings of Uranus and the tenuous jovian ring system, and capped off by the spectacular images returned during the twin Voyager flybys of Saturn. Along with the completely unsuspected wealth of detail these observations revealed came an unwelcome problem: are the rings ancient or are we privileged to live at a special time in history? The answer to this still-vexing question may lie in the complex gravitational interactions recent studies have revealed between the rings themselves and their retinues of attendant satellites. Between the four known ring systems, we see elegant examples of Lindblad and corotation resonances (first invoked in the galactic context), electromagnetic resonances, many-armed spiral density waves and bending waves, narrow ringlets which exhibit internal modes due to a collective instability, sharp-edged gaps maintained via tidal torques from embedded moonlets, and tenuous dust belts created by meteoroid impact onto

  5. Planetary maps

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1992-01-01

    An important goal of the USGS planetary mapping program is to systematically map the geology of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and the satellites of the outer planets. These geologic maps are published in the USGS Miscellaneous Investigations (I) Series. Planetary maps on sale at the USGS include shaded-relief maps, topographic maps, geologic maps, and controlled photomosaics. Controlled photomosaics are assembled from two or more photographs or images using a network of points of known latitude and longitude. The images used for most of these planetary maps are electronic images, obtained from orbiting television cameras, various optical-mechanical systems. Photographic film was only used to map Earth's Moon.

  6. The occurrence of Jovian planets and the habitability of planetary systems

    PubMed Central

    Lunine, Jonathan I.

    2001-01-01

    Planets of mass comparable to or larger than Jupiter's have been detected around over 50 stars, and for one such object a definitive test of its nature as a gas giant has been accomplished with data from an observed planetary transit. By virtue of their strong gravitational pull, giant planets define the dynamical and collisional environment within which terrestrial planets form. In our solar system, the position and timing of the formation of Jupiter determined the amount and source of the volatiles from which Earth's oceans and the source elements for life were derived. This paper reviews and brings together diverse observational and modeling results to infer the frequency and distribution of giant planets around solar-type stars and to assess implications for the habitability of terrestrial planets. PMID:11158551

  7. The occurrence of Jovian planets and the habitability of planetary systems.

    PubMed

    Lunine, J

    2001-01-30

    Planets of mass comparable to or larger than Jupiter's have been detected around over 50 stars, and for one such object a definitive test of its nature as a gas giant has been accomplished with data from an observed planetary transit. By virtue of their strong gravitational pull, giant planets define the dynamical and collisional environment within which terrestrial planets form. In our solar system, the position and timing of the formation of Jupiter determined the amount and source of the volatiles from which Earth's oceans and the source elements for life were derived. This paper reviews and brings together diverse observational and modeling results to infer the frequency and distribution of giant planets around solar-type stars and to assess implications for the habitability of terrestrial planets.

  8. Trilogy, a Planetary Geodesy Mission Concept for Measuring the Expansion of the Solar System.

    PubMed

    Smith, David E; Zuber, Maria T; Mazarico, Erwan; Genova, Antonio; Neumann, Gregory A; Sun, Xiaoli; Torrence, Mark H; Mao, Dan-Dan

    2018-04-01

    The scale of the solar system is slowly changing, likely increasing as a result of solar mass loss, with additional change possible if there is a secular variation of the gravitational constant, G . The measurement of the change of scale could provide insight into the past and the future of the solar system, and in addition a better understanding of planetary motion and fundamental physics. Estimates for the expansion of the scale of the solar system are of order 1.5 cm year -1 AU -1 , which over several years is an observable quantity with present-day laser ranging systems. This estimate suggests that laser measurements between planets could provide an accurate estimate of the solar system expansion rate. We examine distance measurements between three bodies in the inner solar system -- Earth's Moon, Mars and Venus -- and outline a mission concept for making the measurements. The concept involves placing spacecraft that carry laser ranging transponders in orbit around each body and measuring the distances between the three spacecraft over a period of several years. The analysis of these range measurements would allow the co-estimation of the spacecraft orbit, planetary ephemerides, other geophysical parameters related to the constitution and dynamics of the central bodies, and key geodetic parameters related to the solar system expansion, the Sun, and theoretical physics.

  9. Trilogy, a planetary geodesy mission concept for measuring the expansion of the solar system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, David E.; Zuber, Maria T.; Mazarico, Erwan; Genova, Antonio; Neumann, Gregory A.; Sun, Xiaoli; Torrence, Mark H.; Mao, Dan-dan

    2018-04-01

    The scale of the solar system is slowly changing, likely increasing as a result of solar mass loss, with additional change possible if there is a secular variation of the gravitational constant, G. The measurement of the change of scale could provide insight into the past and the future of the solar system, and in addition a better understanding of planetary motion and fundamental physics. Estimates for the expansion of the scale of the solar system are of order 1.5 cm year-1 AU-1, which over several years is an observable quantity with present-day laser ranging systems. This estimate suggests that laser measurements between planets could provide an accurate estimate of the solar system expansion rate. We examine distance measurements between three bodies in the inner solar system - Earth's Moon, Mars and Venus - and outline a mission concept for making the measurements. The concept involves placing spacecraft that carry laser ranging transponders in orbit around each body and measuring the distances between the three spacecraft over a period of several years. The analysis of these range measurements would allow the co-estimation of the spacecraft orbit, planetary ephemerides, other geophysical parameters related to the constitution and dynamics of the central bodies, and key geodetic parameters related to the solar system expansion, the Sun, and theoretical physics.

  10. Characterizing K2 Candidate Planetary Systems Orbiting Low-Mass Stars. I. Classifying Low-Mass Host Stars Observed During Campaigns 1-7

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dressing, Courtney D.; Newton, Elisabeth R.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Charbomeau, David; Krutson, Heather A.; Vanderburg, Andrew; Sinukoff, Evan

    2017-01-01

    We present near-infrared spectra for 144 candidate planetary systems identified during Campaigns 1-7 of the NASA K2 Mission. The goal of the survey was to characterize planets orbiting low-mass stars, but our Infrared Telescope Facility/SpeX and Palomar/TripleSpec spectroscopic observations revealed that 49% of our targets were actually giant stars or hotter dwarfs reddened by interstellar extinction. For the 72 stars with spectra consistent with classification as cool dwarfs (spectral types K3-M4), we refined their stellar properties by applying empirical relations based on stars with interferometric radius measurements. Although our revised temperatures are generally consistent with those reported in the Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC), our revised stellar radii are typically 0.13 solar radius (39%) larger than the EPIC values, which were based on model isochrones that have been shown to underestimate the radii of cool dwarfs. Our improved stellar characterizations will enable more efficient prioritization of K2 targets for follow-up studies.

  11. Dynamical reference frames in the planetary and earth-moon systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Standish, E. M.; Williams, G.

    1990-01-01

    Estimates of the accuracies of the ephemerides are reviewed using data for planetary and lunar systems to determine the efficacy of the inherent dynamical reference frame. The varied observational data are listed and given with special attention given to ephemeris improvements. The importance of ranging data is discussed with respect to the inner four planets and the moon, and the discrepancy of 1 arcsec/century between mean motions determined by optical observations versus ranging data is addressed. The Viking mission data provide inertial mean motions for the earth and Mars of 0.003 arcsec/century which will deteriorate to 0.01 arcsec after about 10 years. Uncertainties for other planets and the moon are found to correspond to approximately the same level of degradation. In general the data measurements and error estimates are improving the ephemerides, although refitting the data cannot account for changes in mean motion.

  12. Planetary Science Training for NASA's Astronauts: Preparing for Future Human Planetary Exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bleacher, J. E.; Evans, C. A.; Graff, T. G.; Young, K. E.; Zeigler, R.

    2017-02-01

    Astronauts selected in 2017 and in future years will carry out in situ planetary science research during exploration of the solar system. Training to enable this goal is underway and is flexible to accommodate an evolving planetary science vision.

  13. Implications for Planetary System Formation from Interstellar Object 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trilling, David E.; Robinson, Tyler; Roegge, Alissa; Chandler, Colin Orion; Smith, Nathan; Loeffler, Mark; Trujillo, Chad; Navarro-Meza, Samuel; Glaspie, Lori M.

    2017-12-01

    The recently discovered minor body 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) is the first known object in our solar system that is not bound by the Sun’s gravity. Its hyperbolic orbit (eccentricity greater than unity) strongly suggests that it originated outside our solar system; its red color is consistent with substantial space weathering experienced over a long interstellar journey. We carry out a simple calculation of the probability of detecting such an object. We find that the observed detection rate of 1I-like objects can be satisfied if the average mass of ejected material from nearby stars during the process of planetary formation is ˜20 Earth masses, similar to the expected value for our solar system. The current detection rate of such interstellar interlopers is estimated to be 0.2 yr-1, and the expected number of detections over the past few years is almost exactly one. When the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins its wide, fast, deep all-sky survey, the detection rate will increase to 1 yr-1. Those expected detections will provide further constraints on nearby planetary system formation through a better estimate of the number and properties of interstellar objects.

  14. The Anthropocene Generalized: Evolution of Exo-Civilizations and Their Planetary Feedback.

    PubMed

    Frank, A; Carroll-Nellenback, Jonathan; Alberti, M; Kleidon, A

    2018-05-01

    We present a framework for studying generic behaviors possible in the interaction between a resource-harvesting technological civilization (an exo-civilization) and the planetary environment in which it evolves. Using methods from dynamical systems theory, we introduce and analyze a suite of simple equations modeling a population which consumes resources for the purpose of running a technological civilization and the feedback those resources drive on the state of the host planet. The feedbacks can drive the planet away from the initial state the civilization originated in and into domains that are detrimental to its sustainability. Our models conceptualize the problem primarily in terms of feedbacks from the resource use onto the coupled planetary systems. In addition, we also model the population growth advantages gained via the harvesting of these resources. We present three models of increasing complexity: (1) Civilization-planetary interaction with a single resource; (2) Civilization-planetary interaction with two resources each of which has a different level of planetary system feedback; (3) Civilization-planetary interaction with two resources and nonlinear planetary feedback (i.e., runaways). All three models show distinct classes of exo-civilization trajectories. We find smooth entries into long-term, "sustainable" steady states. We also find population booms followed by various levels of "die-off." Finally, we also observe rapid "collapse" trajectories for which the population approaches n = 0. Our results are part of a program for developing an "Astrobiology of the Anthropocene" in which questions of sustainability, centered on the coupled Earth-system, can be seen in their proper astronomical/planetary context. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for both the coupled Earth system and for the consideration of exo-civilizations across cosmic history. Key Words: Anthropocene-Astrobiology-Civilization-Dynamical system theory

  15. The Stability of Orbital Configurations and the Ultimate Configurations of Planetary and Satellite Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, Jack J.; Duncan, Martin J.

    2004-01-01

    The contents include the following: 1) Dynamical Evolution of the Earth-Moon Progenitors. 2) Dynamical Connections between Giant and Terrestrial Planets. 3) Dynamics of the Upsilon Andromedae Planetary System. 4) Dynamics of the Planets Orbiting GJ 876. and 5) Integrators for Planetary Accretion in Binaries.

  16. Global climatology of planetary boundary layer top obtained from multi-satellite GPS RO observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basha, Ghouse; Kishore, P.; Ratnam, M. Venkat; Ravindra Babu, S.; Velicogna, Isabella; Jiang, Jonathan H.; Ao, Chi O.

    2018-05-01

    Accurate estimation of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) top is essential for air quality prediction, weather forecast, and assessment of regional and global climate models. In this article, the long-term climatology of seasonal, global distribution of PBL is presented by using global positioning system radio occultation (GPSRO) based payloads such as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS), TerraSAR-X, and The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) from the year 2006-2015. We used Wavelet Covariance Transform (WCT) technique for precise PBL top identification. The derived PBL top from GPSRO data is rigorously evaluated with GPS radiosonde data over Gadanki. Significant seasonal variation is noticed in both radiosonde and GPSRO observations. Further, we compared the PBL obtained GPS RO with global radiosonde network and observed very good correlation. The number of occultations reaching down to 500 m and retrieval rate of PBL top from WCT method is very high in mid-latitudes compared to tropical latitudes. The global distribution of PBL top shows significant seasonal variation with higher during summer followed by spring, fall, and minimum in winter. In the vicinity of Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the PBL top is high over eastern Pacific compared to other regions. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data underestimate the PBL top compared to GPS RO observations due to different measurement techniques. The seasonal variation of global averaged PBL top over land and ocean shows contrasting features at different latitude bands.

  17. Planetary geosciences, 1989-1990

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zuber, Maria T. (Editor); James, Odette B. (Editor); Lunine, Jonathan I. (Editor); Macpherson, Glenn J. (Editor); Phillips, Roger J. (Editor)

    1992-01-01

    NASA's Planetary Geosciences Programs (the Planetary Geology and Geophysics and the Planetary Material and Geochemistry Programs) provide support and an organizational framework for scientific research on solid bodies of the solar system. These research and analysis programs support scientific research aimed at increasing our understanding of the physical, chemical, and dynamic nature of the solid bodies of the solar system: the Moon, the terrestrial planets, the satellites of the outer planets, the rings, the asteroids, and the comets. This research is conducted using a variety of methods: laboratory experiments, theoretical approaches, data analysis, and Earth analog techniques. Through research supported by these programs, we are expanding our understanding of the origin and evolution of the solar system. This document is intended to provide an overview of the more significant scientific findings and discoveries made this year by scientists supported by the Planetary Geosciences Program. To a large degree, these results and discoveries are the measure of success of the programs.

  18. Ways that our Solar System helps us understand the formation of other planetary systems and ways that it doesn't

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wetherill, G. W.

    1996-01-01

    Models of planetary formation can be tested by comparison of their ability to predict features of our Solar System in a consistent way, and then extrapolated to other hypothetical planetary systems by different choice of parameters. When this is done, it is found that the resulting systems are insensitive to direct effects of the mass of the star, but do strongly depend on the properties of the disk, principally its surface density. Major uncertainty results from lack of an adequate theoretical model that predicts the existence, size, and distribution of analogs of our Solar System, particularly the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Nevertheless, reasons can be found for expecting that planetary systems, including those containing biologically habitable planets similar to Earth, may be abundant in the Galaxy and Universe.

  19. Ways that our Solar System helps us understand the formation of other planetary systems and ways that it doesn't.

    PubMed

    Wetherill, G W

    1996-01-01

    Models of planetary formation can be tested by comparison of their ability to predict features of our Solar System in a consistent way, and then extrapolated to other hypothetical planetary systems by different choice of parameters. When this is done, it is found that the resulting systems are insensitive to direct effects of the mass of the star, but do strongly depend on the properties of the disk, principally its surface density. Major uncertainty results from lack of an adequate theoretical model that predicts the existence, size, and distribution of analogs of our Solar System, particularly the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Nevertheless, reasons can be found for expecting that planetary systems, including those containing biologically habitable planets similar to Earth, may be abundant in the Galaxy and Universe.

  20. Chemistry in the final stages of stellar evolution: Millimeter and submillimeter observations of supergiants and planetary nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Edwards, Jessica Louise

    High mass loss rates in evolved stars make them the major contributors to recycling processed material back into the interstellar medium. This mass loss creates large circumstellar shells, rich in molecular material. This dissertation presents millimeter and submillimeter studies of the end stages of low mass and high mass stars in order to probe their molecular content in more detail. In low mass stars, the molecular material is carried on into the planetary nebula (PN) stage. Observations of CS, HCO+, and CO in planetary nebulae (PNe) of various post-asymptotic giant branch ages have shown that molecular abundances in these objects do not significantly vary with age, as previously thought. More detailed observations of the slightly oxygen-rich PN NGC 6537 resulted in the detection of CN, HCN, HNC, CCH, CS, SO, H 2CO, HCO+ and N2H+, as well as numerous 13C isotopologues. Observations of the middle-aged PN M2-48 showed the presence of CN, HCN, HNC, CS, SO, SO2, SiO, HCO+, N2H+, and several 13C isotopologues. These observations represent the first detections of CS, SO, SO2, and SiO in any planetary nebula. The implications of these observations are discussed. A 1 mm spectral survey of the supergiant star NML Cygni has been carried out with the Arizona Radio Observatory Submillimeter Telescope resulting in the observation of 102 emission features arising from 17 different molecules and 4 unidentified features. The line profiles observed in this circumstellar shell are asymmetric and vary between different molecules, akin to what has been seen in another supergiant, VY Canis Majoris. The non-LTE radiative transfer code ESCAPADE has been used to model molecular abundances in the various asymmetric outflows of VY Canis Majoris, showing just how chemically and kinematically complex these supergiant circumstellar envelopes really are.

  1. Planetary Data Workshop, Part 2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1984-01-01

    Technical aspects of the Planetary Data System (PDS) are addressed. Methods and tools for maintaining and accessing large, complex sets of data are discussed. The specific software and applications needed for processing imaging and non-imaging science data are reviewed. The need for specific software that provides users with information on the location and geometry of scientific observations is discussed. Computer networks and user interface to the PDS are covered along with Computer hardware available to this data system.

  2. Analysis of Sel-Gravitating Planetary Satellites in the Solar System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yasenev, S. O.

    As of today there have been more than 180 planetary satellites discovered in the Solar system, and the number of outer moons found continues to grow. Most of those natural satellites have insufficient mass and are able to retain their shape only due to the strength of the electromagnetic force. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the moons' physical properties. The analysis of planetary satellites as self-gravitating bodies, i.e. celestial bodies which rely on the weight of their own mass and resulting gravitational force to maintain their shape and tend to bring it closer to the hydrostatic equilibrium, was performed.

  3. An integrated strategy for the planetary sciences: 1995 - 2010

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1994-01-01

    In 1992, the National Research Council's Space Studies Board charged its Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) to: (1) summarize current understanding of the planets and the solar system; (2) pose the most significant scientific questions that remain; and (3) establish the priorities for scientific exploration of the planets for the period from 1995 to 2010. The broad scientific goals of solar system exploration include: (1) understanding how physical and chemical processes determine the major characteristics of the planets, and thereby help us to understand the operation of Earth; (2) learning about how planetary systems originate and evolve; (3) determining how life developed in the solar system, particularly on Earth, and in what ways life modifies planetary environments; and (4) discovering how relatively simple, basic laws of physics and chemistry can lead to the diverse phenomena observed in complex systems. COMPLEX maintains that the most useful new programs to emphasize in the period from 1995 to 2010 are detailed investigations of comets, Mars, and Jupiter and an intensive search for, and characterization of, extrasolar planets.

  4. Planetary science: A lunar perspective

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Taylor, S. R.

    1982-01-01

    An interpretative synthesis of current knowledge on the moon and the terrestrial planets is presented, emphasizing the impact of recent lunar research (using Apollo data and samples) on theories of planetary morphology and evolution. Chapters are included on the exploration of the solar system; geology and stratigraphy; meteorite impacts, craters, and multiring basins; planetary surfaces; planetary crusts; basaltic volcanism; planetary interiors; the chemical composition of the planets; the origin and evolution of the moon and planets; and the significance of lunar and planetary exploration. Photographs, drawings, graphs, tables of quantitative data, and a glossary are provided.

  5. Chaotic Exchange of Solid Material Between Planetary Systems: Implications for Lithopanspermia

    PubMed Central

    Belbruno, Edward; Malhotra, Renu; Savransky, Dmitry

    2012-01-01

    Abstract We examined a low-energy mechanism for the transfer of meteoroids between two planetary systems embedded in a star cluster using quasi-parabolic orbits of minimal energy. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we found that the exchange of meteoroids could have been significantly more efficient than previously estimated. Our study is relevant to astrobiology, as it addresses whether life on Earth could have been transferred to other planetary systems in the Solar System's birth cluster and whether life on Earth could have been transferred from beyond the Solar System. In the Solar System, the timescale over which solid material was delivered to the region from where it could be transferred via this mechanism likely extended to several hundred million years (as indicated by the 3.8–4.0 Ga epoch of the Late Heavy Bombardment). This timescale could have overlapped with the lifetime of the Solar birth cluster (∼100–500 Myr). Therefore, we conclude that lithopanspermia is an open possibility if life had an early start. Adopting parameters from the minimum mass solar nebula, considering a range of planetesimal size distributions derived from observations of asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects and theoretical coagulation models, and taking into account Oort Cloud formation models, we discerned that the expected number of bodies with mass>10 kg that could have been transferred between the Sun and its nearest cluster neighbor could be of the order of 1014 to 3·1016, with transfer timescales of tens of millions of years. We estimate that of the order of 3·108·l (km) could potentially be life-bearing, where l is the depth of Earth's crust in kilometers that was ejected as the result of the early bombardment. Key Words: Extrasolar planets—Interplanetary dust—Interstellar meteorites—Lithopanspermia. Astrobiology 12, 754–774. PMID:22897115

  6. Operation of the Planetary Plasma Interactions Node of the Planetary Data System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Walker, Raymond J.

    1997-01-01

    Five years ago NASA selected the Planetary Plasma Interactions (PPI) Node at UCLA to help the scientific community locate, access and preserve particles and fields data from planetary missions. We propose to continue to serve for 5 more years. During the first five years we have served the scientific community by providing them with high quality data products. We worked with missions and individual scientists to secure the highest quality data possible and to thoroughly document it. We validated the data, placed it on long lasting media and made sure it was properly archived for future use. So far we have prepared and archived over 10(exp 11) bytes of data from 26 instruments on 4 spacecraft. We have produced 106 CD-ROMs with peer reviewed data. In so doing, we have developed an efficient system to prepare and archive the data and thereby have been able to steadily increase the rate at which the data are produced. Although we produced a substantial archive during the initial five years, we have an even larger amount of work in progress. This includes preparing CD-ROM data sets with all of the Voyager, Pioneer and Ulysses data at Jupiter and Saturn. We will have the Jupiter data ready for the Galileo encounter in December, 1995. We are also completing the Pioneer Venus data restoration. The Galileo Venus archive and radio science data from Magellan will be prepared early in the next period. We are assisting the Small Bodies Node of PDS in the preparation of comet data and will be archiving the asteroid data from Galileo. We will be moving in several new directions as well. We will archive the PPI Node's first Earth based data with data from the International Jupiter Watch and Hubble data taken in support of Ulysses particles and field observations. We will work with the Cassini mission in archive planning efforts. For the inner planets we will begin an archive of Mars data starting with Phobos data and will support the US and Russian Mars missions in the late 1990's

  7. Modelling the Diversity of Outer Planetary Systems. 1; Formation and Evolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lissauer, J. J.; Levison, H. F.; Duncan, M. J.; Young, Richard E. (Technical Monitor)

    1998-01-01

    The process of planetary growth is extremely complicated, involving a myriad of physical and chemical processes, many of which are poorly understood. The ultimate configuration that a planetary system attains depends upon the properties of the disk out of which it grew, of the star at the center of the disk and, at least in some cases, of the interstellar environment. However, this dependence is poorly understood. Thus, in an effort to numerically survey the possible diversity of planetary systems, we have constructed synthetic systems of giant planets and integrated their orbits to determine the dynamical lifetimes and thus the viability of these systems. Our construction algorithm begins with 110 -- 180 planetesimals located between 4 and 40 AU from a one solar mass star; most initial planetesimals have masses several tenths that of Earth. We integrate the orbits of these bodies subject to mutual gravitational perturbations and gas drag for $10^6 - 10^7$ years, merging any pair of planetesimals which passed within one-tenth of a Hill Sphere of one another and adding "gas" to embryos larger than 10 Earth masses. Use of such large planetesimal radii provided sufficient damping to prevent the system from excessive dynamical heating. Subsequently, systems were evolved without gas drag, either with the inflated radii or with more realistic radii. Systems took from a few million years to greater than ten billion years to become stable ($10^9$ years without mergers of ejections). Some of the systems produced with the inflated radii closely resemble our Solar System. Encounters in simulations using realistic radii resulted in ejections, typically leaving only a few planets per system, most of which were in highly eccentric orbits. The structure and dynamics of the resulting "stable" systems is discussed in detail in the abstract by Levison et al.

  8. Special issue on enabling open and interoperable access to Planetary Science and Heliophysics databases and tools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2018-01-01

    The large amount of data generated by modern space missions calls for a change of organization of data distribution and access procedures. Although long term archives exist for telescopic and space-borne observations, high-level functions need to be developed on top of these repositories to make Planetary Science and Heliophysics data more accessible and to favor interoperability. Results of simulations and reference laboratory data also need to be integrated to support and interpret the observations. Interoperable software and interfaces have recently been developed in many scientific domains. The Virtual Observatory (VO) interoperable standards developed for Astronomy by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) can be adapted to Planetary Sciences, as demonstrated by the VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) team within the Europlanet-H2020-RI project. Other communities have developed their own standards: GIS (Geographic Information System) for Earth and planetary surfaces tools, SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) for space plasma, PDS4 (NASA Planetary Data System, version 4) and IPDA (International Planetary Data Alliance) for planetary mission archives, etc, and an effort to make them interoperable altogether is starting, including automated workflows to process related data from different sources.

  9. A Substantial Plume of Escaping Planetary Ions in the MSE Northern Hemisphere Observed by MAVEN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, Y.; Fang, X.; Brain, D. A.; McFadden, J. P.; Halekas, J. S.; Connerney, J. E. P.; Curry, S.; Harada, Y.; Luhmann, J. G.; Jakosky, B. M.

    2015-12-01

    The Mars-solar wind interaction accelerates and transports planetary ions away from Mars through a number of processes, including pick-up by the electromagnetic fields. The Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has frequently detected strong escaping planetary ion fluxes in both tailward and upstream solar wind motional electric field directions since the beginning of its science phase in November 2014. Our statistical study using three-month MAVEN data from November 2014 through February 2015 illustrates a substantial plume-like escaping planetary ion population organized by the upstream electric field with strong fluxes widely distributed in the northern hemisphere of the Mars-Sun-Electric-field (MSE) coordinate system, which is generally consistent with model predictions. The plume constitutes an important planetary ion escape channel from the Martian atmosphere in addition to the tailward escape. The >25eV O+ escape rate through the plume is estimated to be ~35% of the tailward escape and ~25% of the total escape. We will compare the dynamics of the plume and tailward escaping ions based on their velocity-space distributions with respect to the electromagnetic fields. We will also discuss the variations of the plume characteristics between different ion species (O+, O2+, and CO2+) and from the effect of different solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions.

  10. Observations of planetary mixed Rossby-gravity waves in the upper stratosphere

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Randel, William J.; Boville, Byron A.; Gille, John C.

    1990-01-01

    Observational evidence is presented for planetary scale (zonal wave number 1-2) mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) waves in the equatorial upper stratosphere (35-50 km). These waves are detected in LIMS measurements as coherently propagating temperature maxima of amplitude 0.1-0.3 K, which are antisymmetric (out of phase) about the equator, centered near 10-15 deg north and south latitude. These features have vertical wavelengths of order 10-15 km, periods near 2-3 days, and zonal phase velocities close to 200 m/s. Both eastward and westward propagating waves are found, and the observed vertical wavelengths and meridional structures are in good agreement with the MRG dispersion relation. Theoretical estimates of the zonal accelerations attributable to these waves suggest they do not contribute substantially to the zonal momentum balance in the middle atmosphere.

  11. VLA Reveals a Close Pair of Potential Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1998-09-01

    in Cambridge, MA. "However, we don't think these solar systems would be able to form outer, icy planets like Uranus and Neptune, because of the small size of the dust disks." The new observations "imply that young protoplanetary disks can contain considerably more mass within (a distance equal to Saturn's orbital radius) than astronomers have been willing to contemplate," wrote Alan P. Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in an accompanying Nature article analyzing the results. If the stars were a few times closer together, the researchers point out, the gravitational effects of both would disrupt the disks and prevent any planets from forming. "If these disks form planetary systems, they would be among the closest possible adjacent sets of planets in the universe," said Rodriguez. Boss suggested that a giant planet formed near the edge of one of the disks might be ejected from the system by the gravitational effect of the companion star. This, he says, might explain the possible "runaway planet" shown in a Hubble Space Telescope image released in May. In that result, a planet appears to have been ejected by a binary-star system similar in size to that seen by the VLA. Further observations are required to confirm that result. In addition to Rodriguez and Wilner, the researchers are Paola D'Alessio, Salvador Curiel, Yolanda Gomez, Susana Lizano, Jorge Canto, and Alejandro C. Raga of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City; Paul Ho of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Jose M. Torrelles of the Astrophysical Institute of Andalucia in Spain; and Alan Pedlar of the Jodrell Bank observatory in Britain. The observations of the double-star system were made at a radio wavelength of 7 millimeters, a wavelength at which emission from cosmic dust is readily detected. Astronomers long realized that the VLA had sufficient resolving power - the ability to see fine detail - to make images of the dust disks around young stars that form the building

  12. Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope observations of H2 toward the planetary nebula NGC 1535

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bowers, Charles W.; Blair, William P.; Long, Knox S.; Davidsen, Arthur F.

    1995-01-01

    We have observed the far-ultraviolet spectrum (912-1860 A) of the bright high-excitation planetary nebula NGC 1535 with approximately 3 A resolution using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) aboard the Astro-1 space shuttle pmission in 1990 December. We see strong continuum emission down to the Lyman limit and strong P Cygni profiles from high-excitation lines such as C IV wavelength 1549, N V wavelength 1240, O V wavelength 1371, and O VI wavelength 1035. Below 1150 A strong absorption bands of H2 are seen, which were unanticipated by us because of the low reddening and high galactic latitude of the object and the absence of detected H2 emission in the infrared. We construct model H2 spectra and convolve them to the HUT resolution for comparison with the NGC 1535 data. We find good agreement with a population distribution characterized by a single temperature (T = 300 K) or a two-temperature model (T = 144/500 K), and determine limits on the H2 column density. While both inter-stellar and circumstellar origins for the observed H2 absorption are plausible, we ascribe the material to the planetary nebula in order to estimate the conditions of excitation and place upper limits on the mass of both H2 and H1 in this system. Because the UV transitions are ground-state connected, we determine a stringent upper limit of 0.03 d(sup 2)(sub 1.6) solar mass on the mass of H2, where d(sub 1.6) is the distance relative to an assumed distance of 1.6 kpc. This value is less model-dependent than IR estimates. Along with the central star and nebular masses, these estimates allow us to limit the main-sequence mass of the progenitor star to less than 1.8 solar mass. This upper limit is consistent with a relatively low-mass extended thick disk or Population II progenitor, as expected for an object approximately 1 kpc off the galactic plane.

  13. Observational Studies of the Clearing Phase in Proto-Planetary Disks Surrounding Intermediate Mass Stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grady, Carol A.

    1999-01-01

    A detailed study of circumstellar gas associated with young, intermediate-mass stars has demonstrated that, far from being unique or an infrequently occurring phenomenon, beta Pic-like infall activity is routinely observed in stars younger than 10-50 Myr when the observer's line of sight lies within 15 degrees of the disk mid-plane. Detailed studies of 2 Herbig Ae/Be stars, AB Aur and HD 163296 demonstrate that enhanced infall episodes last 20-60 hours, comparable to the duration of similar episodes in beta Pictoris. The infall activity is consistent with detection of the comae of swarms of star-grazing bodies of asteroidal to cometary composition. Episodic fluctuations in the infall activity are clearly present by approximately 6 Myr, and may indicate the presence of massive planets within the disk. This study has therefore, directly contributed to NASA's Origins of Planetary Systems theme by identifying under what conditions extra-solar planetesimals can be remotely sensed, indicating that such bodies appear to be routinely detectable among young stars in the 1-10 Myr range, and suggesting that temporal studies of spectroscopic variability may provide a means of identifying those systems harboring massive planets. This study has resulted in 2 refereed review papers, 13 other refereed papers, and 17 conference papers.

  14. Suzaku Observations of Charge Exchange Emission from Solar System Objects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ezoe, Y.; Fujimoto, R.; Yamasaki, N. Y.; Mitsuda, K.; Ohashi, T.; Ishikawa, K.; Oishi, S.; Miyoshi, Y; Terada, N.; Futaana, Y.; hide

    2012-01-01

    Recent results of charge exchange emission from solar system objects observed with the Japanese Suzaku satellite are reviewed. Suzaku is of great importance to investigate diffuse X-ray emission like the charge exchange from planetary exospheres and comets. The Suzaku studies of Earth's exosphere, Martian exosphere, Jupiter's aurorae, and comets are overviewed.

  15. Planetary Balloon-Based Science Platform Evaluation and Program Implementation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dankanich, John W.; Kremic, Tibor; Hibbitts, Karl; Young, Eliot F.; Landis, Rob

    2016-01-01

    This report describes a study evaluating the potential for a balloon-based optical telescope as a planetary science asset to achieve decadal class science. The study considered potential science achievable and science traceability relative to the most recent planetary science decadal survey, potential platform features, and demonstration flights in the evaluation process. Science Potential and Benefits: This study confirms the cost the-benefit value for planetary science purposes. Forty-four (44) important questions of the decadal survey are at least partially addressable through balloon based capabilities. Planetary science through balloon observations can provide significant science through observations in the 300 nm to 5 m range and at longer wavelengths as well. Additionally, balloon missions have demonstrated the ability to progress from concept to observation to publication much faster than a space mission increasing the speed of science return. Planetary science from a balloon-borne platform is a relatively low-cost approach to new science measurements. This is particularly relevant within a cost-constrained planetary science budget. Repeated flights further reduce the cost of the per unit science data. Such flights offer observing time at a very competitive cost. Another advantage for planetary scientists is that a dedicated asset could provide significant new viewing opportunities not possible from the ground and allow unprecedented access to observations that cannot be realized with the time allocation pressures faced by current observing assets. In addition, flight systems that have a relatively short life cycle and where hardware is generally recovered, are excellent opportunities to train early career scientists, engineers, and project managers. The fact that balloon-borne payloads, unlike space missions, are generally recovered offers an excellent tool to test and mature instruments and other space craft systems. Desired Gondola Features: Potential

  16. Planetary Protection Concerns During Pre-Launch Radioisotope Power System Final Integration Activities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chen, Fei; McKay, Terri; Spry, James A.; Colozza, Anthony J.; DiStefano, Salvador

    2012-01-01

    The Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) is a next-generation radioisotope-based power system that is currently being developed as an alternative to the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). Power sources such as these may be needed for proposed missions to solar system planets and bodies that have challenging Planetary Protection (PP) requirements (e.g. Mars, Europa, Enceladus) that may support NASA s search for life, remnants of past life, and the precursors of life. One concern is that the heat from the ASRG could potentially create a region in which liquid water may occur. As advised by the NASA Planetary Protection Officer, when deploying an ASRG to Mars, the current COSPAR/NASA PP policy should be followed for Category IVc mission. Thus, sterilization processing of the ASRG to achieve bioburden reduction would be essential to meet the Planetary Protection requirements. Due to thermal constraints and associated low temperature limits of elements of the ASRG, vapor hydrogen peroxide (VHP) was suggested as a candidate alternative sterilization process to complement dry heat microbial reduction (DHMR) for the assembled ASRG. The following proposed sterilization plan for the ASRG anticipates a mission Category IVc level of cleanliness. This plan provides a scenario in which VHP is used as the final sterilization process. Keywords: Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), Planetary Protection (PP), Vapor hydrogen peroxide (VHP) sterilization.

  17. Planetary astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Morrison, David; Hunten, Donald; Ahearn, Michael F.; Belton, Michael J. S.; Black, David; Brown, Robert A.; Brown, Robert Hamilton; Cochran, Anita L.; Cruikshank, Dale P.; Depater, Imke

    1991-01-01

    The authors profile the field of astronomy, identify some of the key scientific questions that can be addressed during the decade of the 1990's, and recommend several facilities that are critically important for answering these questions. Scientific opportunities for the 1990' are discussed. Areas discussed include protoplanetary disks, an inventory of the solar system, primitive material in the solar system, the dynamics of planetary atmospheres, planetary rings and ring dynamics, the composition and structure of the atmospheres of giant planets, the volcanoes of IO, and the mineralogy of the Martian surface. Critical technology developments, proposed projects and facilities, and recommendations for research and facilities are discussed.

  18. The Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments (SCOPE):

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oliversen, R.; Harris, W.; Ballester, G.; Bougher, S.; Broadfoot, L.; Combi, M.; Cravens, T.; Gombosi, T.; Herbert, F.; Joseph, C.; Kozyra, J.; Limaye, S.; Morgenthaler, J.; Paxton, L.; Roesler, F.; Sandel, W.; Ben Jaffel, L.

    2001-12-01

    The NASA Sun-Earth Connection theme roadmap calls for comparative study of how the planets and local interstellar medium (LISM) interact with and respond to changes in the solar wind and UV radiation field. Each planet interaction is unique and defined by solar input and local conditions of magnetic field strength and orientation, rotation rate, heliocentric distance, internal plasma, and ionospheric conductivity and circulation. Because the different elements of the environment respond to external and internal influences that are variable on many temporal and spatial scales, the study of a planetary system requires simultaneous understanding of the solar wind and diagnostics of the sun-planet interaction including auroral intensity and variation, upper atmospheric circulation and composition, and the distribution of neutrals and plasmas near the planet. The Solar Connections Observatory for Planetary Environments (SCOPE) is a mission to study Solar interactions from the level of planetary upper atmospheres to the heliopause. SCOPE consists of a binocular EUV/FUV telescope that provides high spatial resolution imaging, broadband spectro-imaging, and high-resolution H Ly-alpha line spectroscopy between 55-290 nm. SCOPE will study planetary environments as examples of the solar connection and map the distribution of interplanetary H and the interaction of LISM plasma with the solar wind at the heliopause. A key to the SCOPE approach is to include Earth in its research objectives. SCOPE will monitor terrestrial auroral energy deposition and leverage local measurements of the solar wind and propagation models to derive the expected conditions at Superior planets that will be observed in annual opposition campaigns. This will permit direct comparison of planetary and terrestrial responses to the same solar wind stream. Using a combination of observations and MHD models, SCOPE will isolate the different controlling parameters in each planet system and gain insight into

  19. H2 Imaging of Three Proto-Planetary and Young Planetary Nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Volk, Kevin; Hrivnak, Bruce J.; Kwok, Sun

    2004-12-01

    High-resolution (0.15") 2.12 μm H2 and narrowband K images have been obtained of one cool proto-planetary nebula, IRAS 20028+3910, and two hot proto-planetary/young planetary nebulae, IRAS 19306+1407 and IRAS 22023+5249. The observations were made with an adaptive optics system and near-infrared imager on the Gemini North 8 m telescope. All three nebulae are seen to be extended, and in two and possibly all three of them H2 is found to be emitting from bipolar lobes. In IRAS 19306+1407, H2 emission is seen arising from a ring close to the star and from the edges of emerging bipolar lobes. In IRAS 20028+3910, one bright lobe and a very faint second lobe are seen in the H2 and K-band images, similar to the published visible images, but in the H2 and K-band images a faint filament appears to connect the two lobes. The central star is not seen in IRAS 20028+3910, indicating that the nebula is optically thick even at 2 μm, which is unusual. The images suggest that extended H2 emission is often the manifestation of fast-slow wind interactions in the bipolar lobes. The paper is based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory with the Adaptive Optics System Hokupa'a/QUIRC, developed and operated by the University of Hawaii Adaptive Optics Group, with support from the National Science Foundation. The Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT; Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica (CNPq; Brazil), and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET; Argentina).

  20. On the formation age of the first planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hara, T.; Kunitomo, S.; Shigeyasu, M.; Kajiura, D.

    2008-05-01

    Recently, it has been observed the extreme metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo, which must be formed just after Pop III objects. On the other hand, the first gas clouds of mass 106 M are supposed to be formed at z 10, 20, and 30 for the 1σ, 2σ and 3σ, where the density perturbations are assumed of the standard ΛCDM cosmology. Usually it is approximated that the distribution of the density perturbation amplitudes is gaussian where σ means the standard deviation. If we could apply this gaussian distribution to the extreme small probability, the gas clouds would be formed at z 40, 60, and 80 for the 4σ, 6σ, and 8σ where the probabilities are approximately 3 × 10-5, 10-9, and 10-15. Within our universe, there are almost 1016 ( 1022M/106M) clouds of mass 106M. Then the first gas clouds must be formed around z 80, where the time is 20 Myr ( 13.7/(1 + z)3/2 Gyr). Even within our galaxy, there are 105 ( 1011M/106M) clouds, then the first gas clouds within our galaxy must be formed around z 40, where the time is 54 Myr ( 13.7/(1+z)3/2Gyr). The evolution time for massive star ( 102 M) is 3 Myr and the explosion of the massive supernova distributes the metal within a cloud. The damping time of the supernova shock wave in the adiabatic and isothermal era is several Myr and stars of the second generation (Pop II) are formed within a free fall time 20 Myr. Even if the gas cloud is metal poor, there is a lot of possibility to form the planets around such stars. The first planetary systems could be formed within 6 × 107 years after the Big Bang in the universe. Even in our galaxies, the first planetary systems could be formed within 1.7 × 108 years. If the abundance of heavy elements such as Fe is small compared to the elements of C, N, O, the planets must be the one where the rock fraction is small. It is interesting to wait the observations of planets around metal-poor stars. For the panspermia theory, the origin of life could be expected in such systems.

  1. The Planetary Data System— Archiving Planetary Data for the use of the Planetary Science Community

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgan, Thomas H.; McLaughlin, Stephanie A.; Grayzeck, Edwin J.; Vilas, Faith; Knopf, William P.; Crichton, Daniel J.

    2014-11-01

    NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) archives, curates, and distributes digital data from NASA’s planetary missions. PDS provides the planetary science community convenient online access to data from NASA’s missions so that they can continue to mine these rich data sets for new discoveries. The PDS is a federated system consisting of nodes for specific discipline areas ranging from planetary geology to space physics. Our federation includes an engineering node that provides systems engineering support to the entire PDS.In order to adequately capture complete mission data sets containing not only raw and reduced instrument data, but also calibration and documentation and geometry data required to interpret and use these data sets both singly and together (data from multiple instruments, or from multiple missions), PDS personnel work with NASA missions from the initial AO through the end of mission to define, organize, and document the data. This process includes peer-review of data sets by members of the science community to ensure that the data sets are scientifically useful, effectively organized, and well documented. PDS makes the data in PDS easily searchable so that members of the planetary community can both query the archive to find data relevant to specific scientific investigations and easily retrieve the data for analysis. To ensure long-term preservation of data and to make data sets more easily searchable with the new capabilities in Information Technology now available (and as existing technologies become obsolete), the PDS (together with the COSPAR sponsored IPDA) developed and deployed a new data archiving system known as PDS4, released in 2013. The LADEE, MAVEN, OSIRIS REx, InSight, and Mars2020 missions are using PDS4. ESA has adopted PDS4 for the upcoming BepiColumbo mission. The PDS is actively migrating existing data records into PDS4 and developing tools to aid data providers and users. The PDS is also incorporating challenge

  2. Role of stereoscopic imaging in the astronomical study of nearby stars and planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mark, David S.; Waste, Corby

    1997-05-01

    The development of stereoscopic imaging as a 3D spatial mapping tool for planetary science is now beginning to find greater usefulness in the study of stellar atmospheres and planetary systems in general. For the first time, telescopes and accompanying spectrometers have demonstrated the capacity to depict the gyrating motion of nearby stars so precisely as to derive the existence of closely orbiting Jovian-type planets, which are gravitationally influencing the motion of the parent star. Also for the first time, remote space borne telescopes, unhindered by atmospheric effects, are recording and tracking the rotational characteristics of our nearby star, the sun, so accurately as to reveal and identify in great detail the heightened turbulence of the sun's corona. In order to perform new forms of stereo imaging and 3D reconstruction with such large scale objects as stars and planets, within solar systems, a set of geometrical parameters must be observed, and are illustrated here. The behavior of nearby stars can be studied over time using an astrometric approach, making use of the earth's orbital path as a semi- yearly stereo base for the viewing telescope. As is often the case in this method, the resulting stereo angle becomes too narrow to afford a beneficial stereo view, given the star's distance and the general level of detected noise in the signal. With the advent, though, of new earth based and space borne interferometers, operating within various wavelengths including IR, the capability of detecting and assembling the full 3-dimensional axes of motion of nearby gyrating stars can be achieved. In addition, the coupling of large interferometers with combined data sets can provide large stereo bases and low signal noise to produce converging 3- dimensional stereo views of nearby planetary systems. Several groups of new astronomical stereo imaging data sets are presented, including 3D views of the sun taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, coincident

  3. The Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph Sounding Rocket Payload: Recent Modifications for Planetary Observations in the EUV/FUV

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Slater, David C.; Stern, S. Alan; Scherrer, John; Cash, Webster; Green, James C.; Wilkinson, Erik

    1995-01-01

    We report on the status of modifications to an existing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) telescope/spectrograph sounding rocket payload for planetary observations in the 800 - 1200 A wavelength band. The instrument is composed of an existing Wolter Type 2 grazing incidence telescope, a newly built 0.4-m normal incidence Rowland Circle spectrograph, and an open-structure resistive-anode microchannel plate detector. The modified payload has successfully completed three NASA sounding rocket flights within 1994-1995. Future flights are anticipated for additional studies of planetary and cometary atmospheres and interstellar absorption. A detailed description of the payload, along with the performance characteristics of the integrated instrument are presented. In addition, some preliminary flight results from the above three missions are also presented.

  4. The APIS service : a tool for accessing value-added HST planetary auroral observations over 1997-2015

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lamy, L.; Henry, F.; Prangé, R.; Le Sidaner, P.

    2015-10-01

    The Auroral Planetary Imaging and Spectroscopy (APIS) service http://obspm.fr/apis/ provides an open and interactive access to processed auroral observations of the outer planets and their satellites. Such observations are of interest for a wide community at the interface between planetology, magnetospheric and heliospheric physics. APIS consists of (i) a high level database, built from planetary auroral observations acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since 1997 with its mostly used Far-Ultraviolet spectro- imagers, (ii) a dedicated search interface aimed at browsing efficiently this database through relevant conditional search criteria (Figure 1) and (iii) the ability to interactively work with the data online through plotting tools developed by the Virtual Observatory (VO) community, such as Aladin and Specview. This service is VO compliant and can therefore also been queried by external search tools of the VO community. The diversity of available data and the capability to sort them out by relevant physical criteria shall in particular facilitate statistical studies, on long-term scales and/or multi-instrumental multispectral combined analysis [1,2]. We will present the updated capabilities of APIS with several examples. Several tutorials are available online.

  5. Cosmological Effects in Planetary Science

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Blume, H. J.; Wilson, T. L.

    2010-01-01

    In an earlier discussion of the planetary flyby anomaly, a preliminary assessment of cosmological effects upon planetary orbits exhibiting the flyby anomaly was made. A more comprehensive investigation has since been published, although it was directed at the Pioneer anomaly and possible effects of universal rotation. The general subject of Solar System anomalies will be examined here from the point of view of planetary science.

  6. The search for other planetary systems - Progress to date and future prospects (The Rudolph Pesek Lecture)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Black, David C.

    1991-01-01

    The notion is addressed which links the formation of stars and the existence of planets, and the lack of supporting observational data is discussed in relation to a NASA astrometric project. The program cited is called Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS) and includes ground-based astrometric and radial-velocity studies for both direct and indirect scrutiny of unknown planets. The TOPS program also envisages space-based astrometric systems that can operate with an accuracy of not less than 10 microarcseconds, and the possibility is mentioned of a moon-based astrometric platform.

  7. A Ground-Based Profiling Differential Absorption LIDAR System for Measuring CO2 in the Planetary Boundary Layer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Andrews, Arlyn E.; Burris, John F.; Abshire, James B.; Krainak, Michael A.; Riris, Haris; Sun, Xiao-Li; Collatz, G. James

    2002-01-01

    Ground-based LIDAR observations can potentially provide continuous profiles of CO2 through the planetary boundary layer and into the free troposphere. We will present initial atmospheric measurements from a prototype system that is based on components developed by the telecommunications industry. Preliminary measurements and instrument performance calculations indicate that an optimized differential absorption LIDAR (DIAL) system will be capable of providing continuous hourly averaged profiles with 250m vertical resolution and better than 1 ppm precision at 1 km. Precision increases (decreases) at lower (higher) altitudes and is directly proportional to altitude resolution and acquisition time. Thus, precision can be improved if temporal or vertical resolution is sacrificed. Our approach measures absorption by CO2 of pulsed laser light at 1.6 microns backscattered from atmospheric aerosols. Aerosol concentrations in the planetary boundary layer are relatively high and are expected to provide adequate signal returns for the desired resolution. The long-term goal of the project is to develop a rugged, autonomous system using only commercially available components that can be replicated inexpensively for deployment in a monitoring network.

  8. Planetary Geologic Mapping Handbook - 2009

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tanaka, K. L.; Skinner, J. A.; Hare, T. M.

    2009-01-01

    Geologic maps present, in an historical context, fundamental syntheses of interpretations of the materials, landforms, structures, and processes that characterize planetary surfaces and shallow subsurfaces (e.g., Varnes, 1974). Such maps also provide a contextual framework for summarizing and evaluating thematic research for a given region or body. In planetary exploration, for example, geologic maps are used for specialized investigations such as targeting regions of interest for data collection and for characterizing sites for landed missions. Whereas most modern terrestrial geologic maps are constructed from regional views provided by remote sensing data and supplemented in detail by field-based observations and measurements, planetary maps have been largely based on analyses of orbital photography. For planetary bodies in particular, geologic maps commonly represent a snapshot of a surface, because they are based on available information at a time when new data are still being acquired. Thus the field of planetary geologic mapping has been evolving rapidly to embrace the use of new data and modern technology and to accommodate the growing needs of planetary exploration. Planetary geologic maps have been published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1962 (Hackman, 1962). Over this time, numerous maps of several planetary bodies have been prepared at a variety of scales and projections using the best available image and topographic bases. Early geologic map bases commonly consisted of hand-mosaicked photographs or airbrushed shaded-relief views and geologic linework was manually drafted using mylar bases and ink drafting pens. Map publishing required a tedious process of scribing, color peel-coat preparation, typesetting, and photo-laboratory work. Beginning in the 1990s, inexpensive computing, display capability and user-friendly illustration software allowed maps to be drawn using digital tools rather than pen and ink, and mylar bases became obsolete

  9. Design and test of a simulation system for autonomous optic-navigated planetary landing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cai, Sheng; Yin, Yanhe; Liu, Yanjun; He, Fengyun

    2018-02-01

    In this paper, a simulation system based on commercial projector is proposed to test the optical navigation algorithms for autonomous planetary landing in laboratorial scenarios. The design work of optics, mechanics and synchronization control are carried out. Furthermore, the whole simulation system is set up and tested. Through the calibration of the system, two main problems, synchronization between the projector and CCD and pixel-level shifting caused by the low repeatability of DMD used in the projector, are settled. The experimental result shows that the RMS errors of pitch, yaw and roll angles are 0.78', 0.48', and 2.95' compared with the theoretical calculation, which can fulfill the requirement of experimental simulation for planetary landing in laboratory.

  10. Continuing Improvement in the Planetary Ephemeris with VLBA Observations of Cassini

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jones, Dayton L.; Folkner, William M.; Jacobson, Robert A.; Jacobs, Christopher S.; Romney, Jonathan D.; Dhawan, Vivek; Fomalont, Edward B.

    2016-06-01

    During the past decade a continuing series of measurements of the barycentric position of the Saturn system in the inertial International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) has led to a significant improvement in our knowledge of Saturn's orbit. This in turn has improved the current accuracy and time range of the solar system ephemeris produced and maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Our observing technique involves high-precision astrometry of the radio signal from Cassini with the NRAO Very Long Baseline Array, combined with solutions for the orbital motion of Cassini about the Saturn barycenter from Doppler tracking by the Deep Space Network. Our VLBA astrometry is done in a phase-referencing mode, providing nrad-level relative positions between Cassini and angularly nearby extragalactic radio sources. The positions of those reference radio sources are tied to the ICRF through dedicated VLBI observations by several groups around the world. We will present recent results from our astrometric observations of Cassini through early 2016. This program will continue until the end of the Cassini mission in 2017, although future improvement in Saturn's orbit will be more incremental because we have already covered more that a quarter of Saturn's orbital period. The Juno mission to Jupiter, which will orbit Jupiter for about 1.5 years starting in July 2016, will provide an excellent opportunity for us to apply the same VLBA astrometry technique to improve the orbit of Jupiter by a factor of several. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator, developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Program and operated under license. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract

  11. The Ruinous Influence of Close Binary Companions on Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kraus, Adam L.; Ireland, Michael; Mann, Andrew; Huber, Daniel; Dupuy, Trent J.

    2017-01-01

    The majority of solar-type stars are found in binary systems, and the dynamical influence of binary companions is expected to profoundly influence planetary systems. However, the difficulty of identifying planets in binary systems has left the magnitude of this effect uncertain; despite numerous theoretical hurdles to their formation and survival, at least some binary systems clearly host planets. We present high-resolution imaging of nearly 500 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) obtained using adaptive-optics imaging and nonredundant aperture-mask interferometry on the Keck II telescope. We super-resolve some binary systems to projected separations of under 5 AU, showing that planets might form in these dynamically active environments. However, the full distribution of projected separations for our planet-host sample more broadly reveals a deep paucity of binary companions at solar-system scales. When the binary population is parametrized with a semimajor axis cutoff a cut and a suppression factor inside that cutoff S bin, we find with correlated uncertainties that inside acut = 47 +59/-23 AU, the planet occurrence rate in binary systems is only Sbin = 0.34 +0.14/-0.15 times that of wider binaries or single stars. Our results demonstrate that a fifth of all solar-type stars in the Milky Way are disallowed from hosting planetary systems due to the influence of a binary companion.

  12. The Ruinous Influence of Close Binary Companions on Planetary Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kraus, Adam L.; Ireland, Michael; Mann, Andrew; Huber, Daniel; Dupuy, Trent J.

    2017-06-01

    The majority of solar-type stars are found in binary systems, and the dynamical influence of binary companions is expected to profoundly influence planetary systems. However, the difficulty of identifying planets in binary systems has left the magnitude of this effect uncertain; despite numerous theoretical hurdles to their formation and survival, at least some binary systems clearly host planets. We present high-resolution imaging of nearly 500 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs) obtained using adaptive-optics imaging and nonredundant aperture-mask interferometry on the Keck II telescope. We super-resolve some binary systems to projected separations of under 5 AU, showing that planets might form in these dynamically active environments. However, the full distribution of projected separations for our planet-host sample more broadly reveals a deep paucity of binary companions at solar-system scales. When the binary population is parametrized with a semimajor axis cutoff a cut and a suppression factor inside that cutoff S bin, we find with correlated uncertainties that inside acut = 47 +59/-23 AU, the planet occurrence rate in binary systems is only Sbin = 0.34+0.14/-0.15 times that of wider binaries or single stars. Our results demonstrate that a fifth of all solar-type stars in the Milky Way are disallowed from hosting planetary systems due to the influence of a binary companion.

  13. Mission operations systems for planetary exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mclaughlin, William I.; Wolff, Donna M.

    1988-01-01

    The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) to present an overview of the processes comprising planetary mission operations as conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and (2) to present a project-specific and historical context within which this evolving process functions. In order to accomplish these objectives, the generic uplink and downlink functions are described along with their specialization to current flight projects. Also, new multimission capabilities are outlined, including prototyping of advanced-capability software for subsequent incorporation into more automated future operations. Finally, a specific historical ground is provided by listing some major operations software plus a genealogy of planetary missions beginning with Mariner 2 in 1962.

  14. Observations of a two-layer soil moisture influence on surface energy dynamics and planetary boundary layer characteristics in a semiarid shrubland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sanchez-Mejia, Zulia Mayari; Papuga, Shirley A.

    2014-01-01

    We present an observational analysis examining soil moisture control on surface energy dynamics and planetary boundary layer characteristics. Understanding soil moisture control on land-atmosphere interactions will become increasingly important as climate change continues to alter water availability. In this study, we analyzed 4 years of data from the Santa Rita Creosote Ameriflux site. We categorized our data independently in two ways: (1) wet or dry seasons and (2) one of the four cases within a two-layer soil moisture framework for the root zone based on the presence or absence of moisture in shallow (0-20 cm) and deep (20-60 cm) soil layers. Using these categorizations, we quantified the soil moisture control on surface energy dynamics and planetary boundary layer characteristics using both average responses and linear regression. Our results highlight the importance of deep soil moisture in land-atmosphere interactions. The presence of deep soil moisture decreased albedo by about 10%, and significant differences were observed in evaporative fraction even in the absence of shallow moisture. The planetary boundary layer height (PBLh) was largest when the whole soil profile was dry, decreasing by about 1 km when the whole profile was wet. Even when shallow moisture was absent but deep moisture was present the PBLh was significantly lower than when the entire profile was dry. The importance of deep moisture is likely site-specific and modulated through vegetation. Therefore, understanding these relationships also provides important insights into feedbacks between vegetation and the hydrologic cycle and their consequent influence on the climate system.

  15. Simulating airless and/or hot planetary surfaces in the Planetary Emissivity Laboratory (PEL)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maturilli, A.; Helbert, J.; D'Amore, M.

    2010-12-01

    A complete and extensive mineralogical survey of extraterrestrial bodies is actually possible only by means of remote sensing spectrometers, measuring the planetary surfaces in a spectral range that goes from the visible to the far infrared. The list of instruments still active today, observing the most interesting planets and bodies in our solar system is far too long to list them in this abstract. The important message is that all of them are sending to Earth a huge amount of data that needs to be correctly analysed, to infer the mineralogical composition of the observed regions on different targets. This requires laboratory data of relevant analogue materials under relevant conditions measured on a wide spectral range. At the Planetary Emissivity Laboratory (PEL) of DLR in Berlin two separate instruments, a Bruker IFS 88 and a Bruker Vertex 80V are operated in parallel and independently to measure reflectance and emissivity of planetary analogue materials to cover the 0.4 to 100 µm spectral range. The older IFS 88 is used to measure under room pressure and for emissivity measurements from low to moderate temperatures (up to 180° C), while the new Vertex 80V can be evacuated (below 1 mbar) and used to measure emissivity of moderate to very hot surfaces, reaching temperatures typical of the daily Mercury (beyond 500° C). The laboratory set-up and the already obtained results will be described, together with details about the online-archival and the standardized structure of the existing dataset.

  16. Planetary Observations in the Soft X-ray band; Present status and Future CMOS based technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kenter, A.; Kraft, R.; Murray, S.; Smith, R.; George, F.; Branduardi-Raymont, G.; Roediger, E.; Forman, W.; Elvis, M.

    2013-12-01

    Virtually every object in the Solar system emits X-rays, and X-ray studies of these objects often provides information that cannot be obtained by observations in other bands. The Solar Wind Charge Exchange (SWX) has revealed the nature and constituents of everything from comets, to the magnetosphere of the Earth and the gas giants. X-ray fluorescence observations of atmosphere-less rocky bodies have revealed their surface composition and gross morphology. Existing data, however, have been limited by observations with state of the art Earth-orbiting telescopes (e.g. Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku) or in-situ instruments with limited capabilities. We are developing CMOS imaging detectors optimized for use as soft x-ray imaging spectrometers. These devices, when coupled to a light-weight focusing optic or mechanical collimator, would be ideal for examining X-ray emission within the Solar System with unprecedented spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. CMOS devices, apart from their observational capabilities, would be ideal for a planetary mission as they consume very little power (~mW) and require only modest cooling. Furthermore, CMOS devices, unlike conventional CCDs, are extremely radiation hard (>5MRad) and could withstand even the hostile radiation environment of a Jovian orbit with little or no performance degradation. The devices can also be read at high (hundreds to thousands of frames per second) frame rates at low noise, a critical requirement given the high count rates (thousands of cts per second). Our CMOS imaging detectors are back thinned and optimized to detect very soft X-ray emission from light elements such as C,N,O,P,S as well as emission from higher Z elements such as Fe and Ti. This sensor can also resolve the strong CX emission lines of O present is the magnetospheric X-ray emission of the gas giants, as well as thermal and non-thermal bremsstrahlung. We could also detect and study the temporal evolution X-ray synchrotron emission from

  17. Fourier spectroscopy in planetary research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hanel, R. A.; Kunde, V. G.

    1975-01-01

    The application of Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) to planetary research is reviewed. The survey includes FTS observations of the sun, all the planets except Uranus and Pluto, The Galilean satellites and Saturn's rings. Instrumentation and scientific results are considered. The prospects and limitations of FTS for planetary research in the forthcoming years are discussed.

  18. Fourier spectroscopy and planetary research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hanel, R. A.; Kunde, V. G.

    1974-01-01

    The application of Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) to planetary research is reviewed. The survey includes FTS observations of the sun, all the planets except Uranus and Pluto, the Galilean satellites and Saturn's rings. Instrumentation and scientific results are considered and the prospects and limitations of FTS for planetary research in the forthcoming years are discussed.

  19. Planetary surface characterization from dual-polarization radar observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Virkki, Anne; Planetary Radar Team of the Arecibo Observatory

    2017-10-01

    We present a new method to investigate the physical properties of planetary surfaces using dual-polarization radar measurements. The number of radar observations has increased radically during the last five years, allowing us to compare the radar scattering properties of different small-body populations and compositional types. There has also been progress in the laboratory studies of the materials that are relevant to asteroids and comets.In a typical planetary radar measurement a circularly polarized signal is transmitted using a frequency of 2380 MHz (wavelength of 12.6 cm) or 8560 MHz (3.5 cm). The echo is received simultaneously in the same circular (SC) and the opposite circular (OC) polarization as the transmitted signal. The delay and doppler frequency of the signal give highly accurate astrometric information, and the intensity and the polarization are suggestive of the physical properties of the target's near-surface.The radar albedo describes the radar reflectivity of the target. If the effective near-surface is smooth and homogeneous in the wavelength-scale, the echo is received fully in the OC polarization. Wavelength-scale surface roughness or boulders within the effective near-surface volume increase the received echo power in both polarizations. However, there is a lack in the literature describing exactly how the physical properties of the target affect the radar albedo in each polarization, or how they can be derived from the radar measurements.To resolve this problem, we utilize the information that the diffuse components of the OC and SC parts are correlated when the near-surface contains wavelength-scale scatterers such as boulders. A linear least-squares fit to the detected values of OC and SC radar albedos allows us to separate the diffusely scattering part from the quasi-specular part. Combined with the spectro-photometric information of the target and laboratory studies of the permittivity-density dependence, the method provides us with a

  20. Field Geologic Observation and Sample Collection Strategies for Planetary Surface Exploration: Insights from the 2010 Desert RATS Geologist Crewmembers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hurtado, Jose M., Jr.; Young, Kelsey; Bleacher, Jacob E.; Garry, W. Brent; Rice, James W., Jr.

    2012-01-01

    Observation is the primary role of all field geologists, and geologic observations put into an evolving conceptual context will be the most important data stream that will be relayed to Earth during a planetary exploration mission. Sample collection is also an important planetary field activity, and its success is closely tied to the quality of contextual observations. To test protocols for doing effective planetary geologic field- work, the Desert RATS(Research and Technology Studies) project deployed two prototype rovers for two weeks of simulated exploratory traverses in the San Francisco volcanic field of northern Arizona. The authors of this paper represent the geologist crew members who participated in the 2010 field test.We document the procedures adopted for Desert RATS 2010 and report on our experiences regarding these protocols. Careful consideration must be made of various issues that impact the interplay between field geologic observations and sample collection, including time management; strategies relatedtoduplicationofsamplesandobservations;logisticalconstraintson the volume and mass of samples and the volume/transfer of data collected; and paradigms for evaluation of mission success. We find that the 2010 field protocols brought to light important aspects of each of these issues, and we recommend best practices and modifications to training and operational protocols to address them. Underlying our recommendations is the recognition that the capacity of the crew to flexibly execute their activities is paramount. Careful design of mission parameters, especially field geologic protocols, is critical for enabling the crews to successfully meet their science objectives.

  1. Decadal Survey: Planetary Rings Panel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gordon, M. K.; Cuzzi, J. N.; Lissauer, J. J.; Poulet, F.; Brahic, A.; Charnoz, S.; Ferrari, C.; Burns, J. A.; Nicholson, P. D.; Durisen, R. H.; Rappaport, N. J.; Spilker, L. J.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P.; Bosh, A. S.; Olkin, C.; Larson, S. M.; Graps, A. L.; Krueger, H.; Black, G. J.; Festou, M.; Karjalainen, R.; Salo, H. J.; Murray, C. D.; Showalter, M. R.; Dones, L.; Levison, H. F.; Namouni, F.; Araki, S.; Lewis, M. C.; Brooks, S.; Colwell, J. E.; Esposito, L. W.; Horanyi, M.; Stewart, G. R.; Krivov, A.; Schmidt, J.; Spahn, F.; Hamilton, D. P.; Giuliatti-Winter, S.; French, R. G.

    2001-11-01

    The National Research Council's Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration(COMPLEX) met earlier this year to begin the organization of a major activity, "A New Strategy for Solar System Exploration." Several members of the planetary rings community formed an ad hoc panel to discuss the current state and future prospects for the study of planetary rings. In this paper we summarize fundamental questions of ring science, list the key science questions expected to occupy the planetary rings community for the decade 2003-2013, outline the initiatives, missions, and other supporting activities needed to address those questions, and recommend priorities.

  2. Observations of the Natural Planetary Satellites for Dynamical and Physical Purpose

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arlot, J. E.; Thuillot, W.; Fienga, A.; Bec-Borsenberger, A.; Baron, N.; Berthier, J.; Colas, F.; Descamps, P.

    1999-12-01

    At the Institut de mecanique celeste-Bureau des longitudes, we started several programs of observation of the natural planetary satellites. First, we took the opportunity of the transit of the Earth and the Sun in the equatorial plane of Jupiter to observe the mutual phenomena of the Galilean satellites. These observations provide astrometric data of high accuracy useful for dynamical studies of the motions of the satellites and photometric data allowing to characterize the surfaces of the satellites. A campaign was organized leading to 400 light curves made throughout the world in about 40 countries. Second, we started astrometric CCD observations of the faint satellites of Jupiter JVI to JXIII and of the satellite of Saturn Phoebe (SIX) for dynamical purpose at Observatoire de Haute Provence using the 120cm-telescope. PPM, Hipparcos and USNO A.2 catalogue were used for calibration in order to get absolute J2000 R.A. and declination of these objects. In August and December, 1998, CCD observations provided 43 absolute positions of JVI, 23 of JVII, 53 of JVIII, 35 of JIX, 29 of JX, 27 of JXI, 18 of JXII, 16 of JXIII and 135 of SIX (Phoebe). A campaign will also take place in 1999.

  3. SEQ-POINTER: Next generation, planetary spacecraft remote sensing science observation design tool

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Boyer, Jeffrey S.

    1994-01-01

    Since Mariner, NASA-JPL planetary missions have been supported by ground software to plan and design remote sensing science observations. The software used by the science and sequence designers to plan and design observations has evolved with mission and technological advances. The original program, PEGASIS (Mariners 4, 6, and 7), was re-engineered as POGASIS (Mariner 9, Viking, and Mariner 10), and again later as POINTER (Voyager and Galileo). Each of these programs were developed under technological, political, and fiscal constraints which limited their adaptability to other missions and spacecraft designs. Implementation of a multi-mission tool, SEQ POINTER, under the auspices of the JPL Multimission Operations Systems Office (MOSO) is in progress. This version has been designed to address the limitations experienced on previous versions as they were being adapted to a new mission and spacecraft. The tool has been modularly designed with subroutine interface structures to support interchangeable celestial body and spacecraft definition models. The computational and graphics modules have also been designed to interface with data collected from previous spacecraft, or on-going observations, which describe the surface of each target body. These enhancements make SEQ POINTER a candidate for low-cost mission usage, when a remote sensing science observation design capability is required. The current and planned capabilities of the tool will be discussed. The presentation will also include a 5-10 minute video presentation demonstrating the capabilities of a proto-Cassini Project version that was adapted to test the tool. The work described in this abstract was performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  4. SEQ-POINTER: Next generation, planetary spacecraft remote sensing science observation design tool

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boyer, Jeffrey S.

    1994-11-01

    Since Mariner, NASA-JPL planetary missions have been supported by ground software to plan and design remote sensing science observations. The software used by the science and sequence designers to plan and design observations has evolved with mission and technological advances. The original program, PEGASIS (Mariners 4, 6, and 7), was re-engineered as POGASIS (Mariner 9, Viking, and Mariner 10), and again later as POINTER (Voyager and Galileo). Each of these programs were developed under technological, political, and fiscal constraints which limited their adaptability to other missions and spacecraft designs. Implementation of a multi-mission tool, SEQ POINTER, under the auspices of the JPL Multimission Operations Systems Office (MOSO) is in progress. This version has been designed to address the limitations experienced on previous versions as they were being adapted to a new mission and spacecraft. The tool has been modularly designed with subroutine interface structures to support interchangeable celestial body and spacecraft definition models. The computational and graphics modules have also been designed to interface with data collected from previous spacecraft, or on-going observations, which describe the surface of each target body. These enhancements make SEQ POINTER a candidate for low-cost mission usage, when a remote sensing science observation design capability is required. The current and planned capabilities of the tool will be discussed. The presentation will also include a 5-10 minute video presentation demonstrating the capabilities of a proto-Cassini Project version that was adapted to test the tool. The work described in this abstract was performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  5. Nasa's Planetary Geologic Mapping Program: Overview

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Williams, D. A.

    2016-06-01

    NASA's Planetary Science Division supports the geologic mapping of planetary surfaces through a distinct organizational structure and a series of research and analysis (R&A) funding programs. Cartography and geologic mapping issues for NASA's planetary science programs are overseen by the Mapping and Planetary Spatial Infrastructure Team (MAPSIT), which is an assessment group for cartography similar to the Mars Exploration Program Assessment Group (MEPAG) for Mars exploration. MAPSIT's Steering Committee includes specialists in geological mapping, who make up the Geologic Mapping Subcommittee (GEMS). I am the GEMS Chair, and with a group of 3-4 community mappers we advise the U.S. Geological Survey Planetary Geologic Mapping Coordinator (Dr. James Skinner) and develop policy and procedures to aid the planetary geologic mapping community. GEMS meets twice a year, at the Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March, and at the Annual Planetary Mappers' Meeting in June (attendance is required by all NASA-funded geologic mappers). Funding programs under NASA's current R&A structure to propose geological mapping projects include Mars Data Analysis (Mars), Lunar Data Analysis (Moon), Discovery Data Analysis (Mercury, Vesta, Ceres), Cassini Data Analysis (Saturn moons), Solar System Workings (Venus or Jupiter moons), and the Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools (PDART) program. Current NASA policy requires all funded geologic mapping projects to be done digitally using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. In this presentation we will discuss details on how geologic mapping is done consistent with current NASA policy and USGS guidelines.

  6. A Comparison of Observed Abundances in Five Well-Studied Planetary Nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanner, Jolene; Balick, B.; Kwitter, K. B.

    2013-01-01

    We have assembled data and derived abundances in several recent careful studies for five bright planetary nebulae (PNe) of low, moderate, and high ionization and relatively simple morphology. Each of the studies employ different apertures, aperture placement, and facilities for the observations. Various methods were used to derive total abundances. All used spectral windows that included [OII]3727 in the UV through Argon lines in the red. Our ultimate goal is to determine the extent to which the derived abundances are consistent. We show that the reddening-corrected line ratios are surprisingly similar despite the different modes of observation and that the various abundance analysis methods yield generally consistent results for He/H, N/H, O/H, and Ne/H (within 50% with a few larger deviations). In addition we processed the line ratios from the different sources using a common abundance derivation method (ELSA) to search for clues of systematic methodological inconsistencies. None were uncovered.

  7. A Path to Planetary Protection Requirements for Human Exploration: A Literature Review and Systems Engineering Approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnson, James E.; Conley, Cassie; Siegel, Bette

    2015-01-01

    As systems, technologies, and plans for the human exploration of Mars and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit begin to coalesce, it is imperative that frequent and early consideration is given to how planetary protection practices and policy will be upheld. While the development of formal planetary protection requirements for future human space systems and operations may still be a few years from fruition, guidance to appropriately influence mission and system design will be needed soon to avoid costly design and operational changes. The path to constructing such requirements is a journey that espouses key systems engineering practices of understanding shared goals, objectives and concerns, identifying key stakeholders, and iterating a draft requirement set to gain community consensus. This paper traces through each of these practices, beginning with a literature review of nearly three decades of publications addressing planetary protection concerns with respect to human exploration. Key goals, objectives and concerns, particularly with respect to notional requirements, required studies and research, and technology development needs have been compiled and categorized to provide a current 'state of knowledge'. This information, combined with the identification of key stakeholders in upholding planetary protection concerns for human missions, has yielded a draft requirement set that might feed future iteration among space system designers, exploration scientists, and the mission operations community. Combining the information collected with a proposed forward path will hopefully yield a mutually agreeable set of timely, verifiable, and practical requirements for human space exploration that will uphold international commitment to planetary protection.

  8. Stellar Ablation of Planetary Atmospheres

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moore, Thomas E.; Horwitz, J. L.

    2007-01-01

    We review observations and theories of the solar ablation of planetary atmospheres, focusing on the terrestrial case where a large magnetosphere holds off the solar wind, so that there is little direct atmospheric impact, but also couples the solar wind electromagnetically to the auroral zones. We consider the photothermal escape flows known as the polar wind or refilling flows, the enhanced mass flux escape flows that result from localized solar wind energy dissipation in the auroral zones, and the resultant enhanced neutral atom escape flows. We term these latter two escape flows the "auroral wind." We review observations and theories of the heating and acceleration of auroral winds, including energy inputs from precipitating particles, electromagnetic energy flux at magnetohydrodynamic and plasma wave frequencies, and acceleration by parallel electric fields and by convection pickup processes also known as "centrifugal acceleration." We consider also the global circulation of ionospheric plasmas within the magnetosphere, their participation in magnetospheric disturbances as absorbers of momentum and energy, and their ultimate loss from the magnetosphere into the downstream solar wind, loading reconnection processes that occur at high altitudes near the magnetospheric boundaries. We consider the role of planetary magnetization and the accumulating evidence of stellar ablation of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Finally, we suggest and discuss future needs for both the theory and observation of the planetary ionospheres and their role in solar wind interactions, to achieve the generality required for a predictive science of the coupling of stellar and planetary atmospheres over the full range of possible conditions.

  9. Radial velocity detection of extra-solar planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cochran, William D.

    1991-01-01

    The goal of this program was to detect planetary systems in orbit around other stars through the ultra high precision measurement of the orbital motion of the star around the star-planet barycenter. The survey of 33 nearby solar-type stars is the essential first step in understanding the overall problem of planet formation. The program will accumulate the necessary statistics to determine the frequency of planet formation as a function of stellar mass, age, and composition.

  10. Observational evidence of planetary wave influences on ozone enhancements over upper troposphere North Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mengistu Tsidu, Gizaw; Ture, Kassahun; Sivakumar, V.

    2013-07-01

    MOZAIC instrument measured enhanced ozone on two occasions in February, 1996 and 1997 at cruise altitude over North Africa. The cause and source of ozone enhancements over the region are investigated using additional reanalysis data from ERA-Interim. The ERA-Interim reprocessed GOME ozone indicated existence of enhancement as well. Both observational data revealed that the increase in ozone has wider latitudinal coverage extending from North Europe upto North Africa. The geopotential heights and zonal wind from ERA-Interim have indicated existence of planetary-scale flow that allowed meridional airmass exchanges between subtropics and higher latitudes. The presence of troughs-ridge pattern are attributable to large amplitude waves of zonal wavenumber 1-5 propagating eastward in the winter hemisphere westerly current as determined from Hayashi spectra as well as local fractional variance spectra determined from Multitaper Method-Singular Value Decomposition (MTM-SVD) spectral method. MTM-SVD is also used to understand the role of these waves on ozone enhancement and variability during the observation period in a mechanistic approach. A joint analysis of driving field, such as wind and potential vorticity (PV) for which only signals of the dominant zonal wavenumbers of prevailing planetary waves are retained, has revealed strong linkage between wave activity and ozone enhancement over the region at a temporal cycle of 5.8 days. One of these features is the displacement of the polar vortex southward during the enhancements, allowing strong airmass, energy and momentum exchanges. Evidence of cutoff laws that are formed within the deep trough, characteristics of Rossby wave breaking, is also seen in the ozone horizontal distribution at different pressure levels during the events. The reconstruction of signals with the cycle of 5.8 days has shown that the time and strength of enhancement depend on the circulation patterns dictated by planetary-scale flow relative to the

  11. Planetary Rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nicholson, P. D.

    2001-11-01

    A revolution in the studies in planetary rings studies occurred in the period 1977--1981, with the serendipitous discovery of the narrow, dark rings of Uranus, the first Voyager images of the tenuous jovian ring system, and the many spectacular images returned during the twin Voyager flybys of Saturn. In subsequent years, ground-based stellar occultations, HST observations, and the Voyager flybys of Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989), as well as a handful of Galileo images, provided much additional information. Along with the completely unsuspected wealth of detail these observations revealed came an unwelcome problem: are the rings ancient or are we privileged to live at a special time in history? The answer to this still-vexing question may lie in the complex gravitational interactions recent studies have revealed between the rings and their retinues of attendant satellites. Among the four known ring systems, we see elegant examples of Lindblad and corotation resonances (first invoked in the context of galactic disks), electromagnetic resonances, spiral density waves and bending waves, narrow ringlets which exhibit internal modes due to collective instabilities, sharp-edged gaps maintained via tidal torques from embedded moonlets, and tenuous dust belts created by meteoroid impact onto parent bodies. Perhaps most puzzling is Saturn's multi-stranded, clumpy F ring, which continues to defy a simple explanation 20 years after it was first glimpsed in grainy images taken by Pioneer 11. Voyager and HST images reveal a complex, probably chaotic, dynamical interaction between unseen parent bodies within this ring and its two shepherd satellites, Pandora and Prometheus. The work described here reflects contributions by Joe Burns, Jeff Cuzzi, Luke Dones, Dick French, Peter Goldreich, Colleen McGhee, Carolyn Porco, Mark Showalter, and Bruno Sicardy, as well as those of the author. This research has been supported by NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics program and the

  12. Planetary CubeSats Come of Age

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sherwood, Brent; Spangelo, Sara; Frick, Andreas; Castillo-Rogez, Julie; Klesh, Andrew; Wyatt, E. Jay; Reh, Kim; Baker, John

    2015-01-01

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory initiatives in developing and formulating planetary CubeSats are described. Six flight systems already complete or underway now at JPL for missions to interplanetary space, the Moon, a near-Earth asteroid, and Mars are described at the subsystem level. Key differences between interplanetary nanospacecraft and LEO CubeSats are explained, as well as JPL's adaptation of vendor components and development of system solutions to meet planetary-mission needs. Feasible technology-demonstration and science measurement objectives are described for multiple modes of planetary mission implementation. Seven planetary-science demonstration mission concepts, already proposed to NASA by Discovery-2014 PIs partnered with JPL, are described for investigations at Sun-Earth L5, Venus, NEA 1999 FG3, comet Tempel 2, Phobos, main-belt asteroid 24 Themis, and metal asteroid 16 Psyche. The JPL staff and facilities resources available to PIs for analysis, design, and development of planetary nanospacecraft are catalogued.

  13. Planets around pulsars - Implications for planetary formation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bodenheimer, Peter

    1993-01-01

    Data on planets around pulsars are summarized, and different models intended to explain the formation mechanism are described. Both theoretical and observational evidence suggest that very special circumstances are required for the formation of planetary systems around pulsars, namely, the prior presence of a millisecond pulsar with a close binary companion, probably a low mass main-sequence star. It is concluded that the discovery of two planets around PSR 1257+12 is important for better understanding the problems of dynamics and stellar evolution. The process of planetary formation should be learned through intensive studies of the properties of disks near young objects and application of techniques for detection of planets around main-sequence solar-type stars.

  14. Planetary atmospheres and aurorae

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moos, H. W.; Encrenaz, TH.

    1987-01-01

    Observations of planetary atmospheres and auroras obtained by the IUE satellite observatory during the first 10 years of its operation are reviewed. Topics examined include the value of UV studies of atmospheric phenomena, the kinds of observations available prior to the launch of IUE in 1978, the composition and structure of the upper atmospheres below the homopause, the effects of the magnetosphere on the atmosphere above the homopause, excitation processes, and fundamental questions and scientific goals. Data on Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, and the Io plasma torus are presented in tables and graphs and briefly characterized. It is pointed out that the IUE has greatly advanced knowledge of the plantary atmospheres, despite the fact that its design was not optimized for planetary observations.

  15. Planetary Geologic Mapping Handbook - 2010. Appendix

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tanaka, K. L.; Skinner, J. A., Jr.; Hare, T. M.

    2010-01-01

    Geologic maps present, in an historical context, fundamental syntheses of interpretations of the materials, landforms, structures, and processes that characterize planetary surfaces and shallow subsurfaces. Such maps also provide a contextual framework for summarizing and evaluating thematic research for a given region or body. In planetary exploration, for example, geologic maps are used for specialized investigations such as targeting regions of interest for data collection and for characterizing sites for landed missions. Whereas most modern terrestrial geologic maps are constructed from regional views provided by remote sensing data and supplemented in detail by field-based observations and measurements, planetary maps have been largely based on analyses of orbital photography. For planetary bodies in particular, geologic maps commonly represent a snapshot of a surface, because they are based on available information at a time when new data are still being acquired. Thus the field of planetary geologic mapping has been evolving rapidly to embrace the use of new data and modern technology and to accommodate the growing needs of planetary exploration. Planetary geologic maps have been published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1962. Over this time, numerous maps of several planetary bodies have been prepared at a variety of scales and projections using the best available image and topographic bases. Early geologic map bases commonly consisted of hand-mosaicked photographs or airbrushed shaded-relief views and geologic linework was manually drafted using mylar bases and ink drafting pens. Map publishing required a tedious process of scribing, color peel-coat preparation, typesetting, and photo-laboratory work. Beginning in the 1990s, inexpensive computing, display capability and user-friendly illustration software allowed maps to be drawn using digital tools rather than pen and ink, and mylar bases became obsolete. Terrestrial geologic maps published by

  16. Multidisciplinary Tool for Systems Analysis of Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Samareh, Jamshid A.

    2011-01-01

    Systems analysis of a planetary entry (SAPE), descent, and landing (EDL) is a multidisciplinary activity in nature. SAPE improves the performance of the systems analysis team by automating and streamlining the process, and this improvement can reduce the errors that stem from manual data transfer among discipline experts. SAPE is a multidisciplinary tool for systems analysis of planetary EDL for Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Titan. It performs EDL systems analysis for any planet, operates cross-platform (i.e., Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems), uses existing software components and open-source software to avoid software licensing issues, performs low-fidelity systems analysis in one hour on a computer that is comparable to an average laptop, and keeps discipline experts in the analysis loop. SAPE uses Python, a platform-independent, open-source language, for integration and for the user interface. Development has relied heavily on the object-oriented programming capabilities that are available in Python. Modules are provided to interface with commercial and government off-the-shelf software components (e.g., thermal protection systems and finite-element analysis). SAPE currently includes the following analysis modules: geometry, trajectory, aerodynamics, aerothermal, thermal protection system, and interface for structural sizing.

  17. Physical properties of the HAT-P-23 and WASP-48 planetary systems from multi-colour photometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ciceri, S.; Mancini, L.; Southworth, J.; Bruni, I.; Nikolov, N.; D'Ago, G.; Schröder, T.; Bozza, V.; Tregloan-Reed, J.; Henning, Th.

    2015-05-01

    Context. Accurate and repeated photometric follow-up observations of planetary transit events are important to precisely characterize the physical properties of exoplanets. A good knowledge of the main characteristics of the exoplanets is fundamental in order to trace their origin and evolution. Multi-band photometric observations play an important role in this process. Aims: By using new photometric data, we computed precise estimates of the physical properties of two transiting planetary systems at equilibrium temperatures of ~2000 K. Methods: We present new broadband, multi-colour photometric observations obtained using three small class telescopes and the telescope-defocussing technique. In particular we obtained 11 and 10 light curves covering 8 and 7 transits of HAT-P-23 and WASP-48, respectively. For each of the two targets, one transit event was simultaneously observed through four optical filters. One transit of WASP-48 b was monitored with two telescopes from the same observatory. The physical parameters of the systems were obtained by fitting the transit light curves with jktebop and from published spectroscopic measurements. Results: We have revised the physical parameters of the two planetary systems, finding a smaller radius for both HAT-P-23 b and WASP-48 b, Rb = 1.224 ± 0.037 RJup and Rb = 1.396 ± 0.051 RJup, respectively, than those measured in the discovery papers (Rb = 1.368 ± 0.090 RJup and Rb = 1.67 ± 0.10 RJup). The density of the two planets are higher than those previously published (ρb ~ 1.1 and ~0.3 ρjup for HAT-P-23 and WASP-48, respectively) hence the two hot Jupiters are no longer located in a parameter space region of highly inflated planets. An analysis of the variation of the planet's measured radius as a function of optical wavelength reveals flat transmission spectra within the experimental uncertainties. We also confirm the presence of the eclipsing contact binary NSVS-3071474 in the same field of view of WASP-48, for which

  18. Planetary Geology: Goals, Future Directions, and Recommendations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    Planetary exploration has provided a torrent of discoveries and a recognition that planets are not inert objects. This expanded view has led to the notion of comparative planetology, in which the differences and similarities among planetary objects are assessed. Solar system exploration is undergoing a change from an era of reconnaissance to one of intensive exploration and focused study. Analyses of planetary surfaces are playing a key role in this transition, especially as attention is focused on such exploration goals as returned samples from Mars. To assess how the science of planetary geology can best contribute to the goals of solar system exploration, a workshop was held at Arizona State University in January 1987. The participants discussed previous accomplishments of the planetary geology program, assessed the current studies in planetary geology, and considered the requirements to meet near-term and long-term exploration goals.

  19. Multistage Planetary Power Transmissions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hadden, G. B.; Dyba, G. J.; Ragen, M. A.; Kleckner, R. J.; Sheynin, L.

    1986-01-01

    PLANETSYS simulates thermomechanical performance of multistage planetary performance of multistage planetary power transmission. Two versions of code developed, SKF version and NASA version. Major function of program: compute performance characteristics of planet bearing for any of six kinematic inversions. PLANETSYS solves heat-balance equations for either steadystate or transient thermal conditions, and produces temperature maps for mechanical system.

  20. Spatial Query for Planetary Data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shams, Khawaja S.; Crockett, Thomas M.; Powell, Mark W.; Joswig, Joseph C.; Fox, Jason M.

    2011-01-01

    Science investigators need to quickly and effectively assess past observations of specific locations on a planetary surface. This innovation involves a location-based search technology that was adapted and applied to planetary science data to support a spatial query capability for mission operations software. High-performance location-based searching requires the use of spatial data structures for database organization. Spatial data structures are designed to organize datasets based on their coordinates in a way that is optimized for location-based retrieval. The particular spatial data structure that was adapted for planetary data search is the R+ tree.

  1. NASA's Solar System Treks: Online Portals for Planetary Mapping and Modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Day, B. H.; Law, E.

    2017-12-01

    NASA's Solar System Treks are a suite of web-based of lunar and planetary mapping and modeling portals providing interactive visualization and analysis tools enabling mission planners, planetary scientists, students, and the general public to access mapped lunar data products from past and current missions for the Moon, Mars, Vesta, and more. New portals for additional planetary bodies are being planned. This presentation will recap significant enhancements to these toolsets during the past year and look ahead to future features and releases. Moon Trek is a new portal replacing its predecessor, the Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP), that significantly upgrades and builds upon the capabilities of LMMP. It features greatly improved navigation, 3D visualization, fly-overs, performance, and reliability. Additional data products and tools continue to be added. These include both generalized products as well as polar data products specifically targeting potential sites for NASA's Resource Prospector mission as well as for missions being planned by NASA's international partners. The latest release of Mars Trek includes new tools and data products requested by NASA's Planetary Science Division to support site selection and analysis for Mars Human Landing Exploration Zone Sites. Also being given very high priority by NASA Headquarters is Mars Trek's use as a means to directly involve the public in upcoming missions, letting them explore the areas the agency is focusing upon, understand what makes these sites so fascinating, follow the selection process, and get caught up in the excitement of exploring Mars. Phobos Trek, the latest effort in the Solar System Treks suite, is being developed in coordination with the International Phobos/Deimos Landing Site Working Group, with landing site selection and analysis for JAXA's MMX mission as a primary driver.

  2. NASA's Solar System Treks: Online Portals for Planetary Mapping and Modeling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Day, Brian

    2017-01-01

    NASA's Solar System Treks are a suite of web-based of lunar and planetary mapping and modeling portals providing interactive visualization and analysis tools enabling mission planners, planetary scientists, students, and the general public to access mapped lunar data products from past and current missions for the Moon, Mars, Vesta, and more. New portals for additional planetary bodies are being planned. This presentation will recap significant enhancements to these toolsets during the past year and look ahead to future features and releases. Moon Trek is a new portal replacing its predecessor, the Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP), that significantly upgrades and builds upon the capabilities of LMMP. It features greatly improved navigation, 3D visualization, fly-overs, performance, and reliability. Additional data products and tools continue to be added. These include both generalized products as well as polar data products specifically targeting potential sites for NASA's Resource Prospector mission as well as for missions being planned by NASA's international partners. The latest release of Mars Trek includes new tools and data products requested by NASA's Planetary Science Division to support site selection and analysis for Mars Human Landing Exploration Zone Sites. Also being given very high priority by NASA Headquarters is Mars Trek's use as a means to directly involve the public in upcoming missions, letting them explore the areas the agency is focusing upon, understand what makes these sites so fascinating, follow the selection process, and get caught up in the excitement of exploring Mars. Phobos Trek, the latest effort in the Solar System Treks suite, is being developed in coordination with the International Phobos/Deimos Landing Site Working Group, with landing site selection and analysis for JAXA's MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission as a primary driver.

  3. An Overview of the Planetary Data System Roadmap Study for 2017 - 2026

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgan, Thomas H.; McNutt, Ralph L.; Gaddis, Lisa; Law, Emily; Beyer, Ross A.; Crombie, Kate; Ebel, Denton; Ghosh, Amitahba; Grayzeck, Edwin J.; Paganelli, Flora; Raugh, Anne C.; Stein, Thomas; Tiscareno, Matthew S.; Weber, Renee; E Banks, Maria; Powell, Kathryn

    2017-10-01

    NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) is the formal archive of >1.2 petabytes of data from planetary exploration, science, and research. Initiated in 1989 to address an overall lack of attention to mission data documentation, access, and archiving, the PDS has since evolved into an online collection of digital data managed and served by a federation of 6 science discipline nodes and 2 technical support nodes. Several ad-hoc mission-oriented data nodes also provide complex data interfaces and access for the duration of their missions.The new PDS Roadmap Study for 2017-2026 involved 15 planetary science community members who collectively prepared a report summarizing the results of an intensive examination of the current state of the PDS and its organization, management, practices, and data holdings (https://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/roadmap/PlanetaryDataSystemRMS17-26_20jun17.pdf). The report summarizes PDS history, its functions and characteristics, and its present form; also included are extensive references and documentary appendices. The report recognizes that as a complex evolving system, the PDS must respond to new pressures and opportunities. The report provides details on challenges now facing the PDS, 19 detailed findings and suggested remediations that could be used to respond to these findings, and a summary of the potential future of planetary data archiving. These findings cover topics such as user needs and expectations, data usability and discoverability (i.e., metadata, data access, documentation, and training), tools and file formats, use of current information technologies, and responses to increases in data volume, variety, complexity, and number of data providers. In addition, the study addresses the possibility of archiving software, laboratory data, and physical samples. Finally, the report discusses the current structure and governance of PDS and the impact of this on how archive growth, technology, and new developments are enabled and managed within

  4. Planetary Rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gordon, M. K.; Araki, S.; Black, G. J.; Bosh, A. S.; Brahic, A.; Brooks, S. M.; Charnoz, S.; Colwell, J. E.; Cuzzi, J. N.; Dones, L.; Durisen, R. H.; Esposito, L. W.; Ferrari, C.; Festou, M.; French, R. G.; Giuliatti-Winter, S. M.; Graps, A. L.; Hamilton, D. P.; Horanyi, M.; Karjalainen, R. M.; Krivov, A. V.; Krueger, H.; Larson, S. M.; Levison, H. F.; Lewis, M. C.; Lissauer, J. J.; Murray, C. D.; Namouni, F.; Nicholson, P. D.; Olkin, C. B.; Poulet, F.; Rappaport, N. J.; Salo, H. J.; Schmidt, J.; Showalter, M. R.; Spahn, F.; Spilker, L. J.; Srama, R.; Stewart, G. R.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P.

    2002-08-01

    The past two decades have witnessed dramatic changes in our view and understanding of planetary rings. We now know that each of the giant planets in the Solar System possesses a complex and unique ring system. Recent studies have identified complex gravitational interactions between the rings and their retinues of attendant satellites. Among the four known ring systems, we see elegant examples of Lindblad and corotation resonances (first invoked in the context of galactic disks), electromagnetic resonances, spiral density waves and bending waves, narrow ringlets which exhibit internal modes due to collective instabilities, sharp-edged gaps maintained via tidal torques from embedded moonlets, and tenuous dust belts created by meteoroid impact onto, or collisions between, parent bodies. Yet, as far as we have come, our understanding is far from complete. The fundamental questions confronting ring scientists at the beginning of the twenty-first century are those regarding the origin, age and evolution of the various ring systems, in the broadest context. Understanding the origin and age requires us to know the current ring properties, and to understand the dominant evolutionary processes and how they influence ring properties. Here we discuss a prioritized list of the key questions, the answers to which would provide the greatest improvement in our understanding of planetary rings. We then outline the initiatives, missions, and other supporting activities needed to address those questions, and recommend priorities for the coming decade in planetary ring science.

  5. Magnetostrophic balance in planetary dynamos - Predictions for Neptune's magnetosphere

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Curtis, S. A.; Ness, N. F.

    1986-01-01

    With the purpose of estimating Neptune's magnetic field and its implications for nonthermal Neptune radio emissions, a new scaling law for planetary magnetic fields was developed in terms of externally observable parameters (the planet's mean density, radius, mass, rotation rate, and internal heat source luminosity). From a comparison of theory and observations by Voyager it was concluded that planetary dynamos are two-state systems with either zero intrinsic magnetic field (for planets with low internal heat source) or (for planets with the internal heat source sufficiently strong to drive convection) a magnetic field near the upper bound determined from magnetostrophic balance. It is noted that mass loading of the Neptune magnetosphere by Triton may play an important role in the generation of nonthermal radio emissions.

  6. The Formation of a Planetary Nebula.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harpaz, Amos

    1991-01-01

    Proposes a scenario to describe the formation of a planetary nebula, a cloud of gas surrounding a very hot compact star. Describes the nature of a planetary nebula, the number observed to date in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the results of research on a specific nebula. (MDH)

  7. Rocky Planetary Debris Around Young WDs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gaensicke, B.

    2014-04-01

    The vast majority of all known planet host stars, including the Sun, will eventually evolve into red giants and finally end their lives as white dwarfs: extremely dense Earth-sized stellar embers. Only close-in planets will be devoured during the red-giant phase. In the solar system, Mars, the asteroid belt, and all the giant planets will escape evaporation, and the same is true for many of the known exo-planets. It is hence certain that a significant fraction of the known white dwarfs were once host stars to planets, and it is very likely that many of them still have remnants of planetary systems. The detection of metals in the atmospheres of white dwarfs is the unmistakable signpost of such evolved planetary systems. The strong surface gravity of white dwarfs causes metals to sink out of the atmosphere on time-scales much shorter than their cooling ages, leading unavoidably to pristine H/He atmospheres. Therefore any metals detected in the atmosphere of a white dwarf imply recent or ongoing accretion of planetary debris. In fact, planetary debris is also detected as circumstellar dust and gas around a number of white dwarfs. These debris disks are formed from the tidal disruption of asteroids or Kuiper belt-like objects, stirred up by left-over planets, and are subsequently accreted onto the white dwarf, imprinting their abundance pattern into its atmosphere. Determining the photospheric abundances of debris-polluted white dwarfs is hence entirely analogue to the use of meteorites, "rocks that fell from the sky", for measuring the abundances of planetary material in the solar system. I will briefly review this new field of exo-planet science, and then focus on the results of a large, unbiased COS snapshot survey of relatively young ( 20-100Myr) white dwarfs that we carried out in Cycle 18/19. * At least 30% of all white dwarfs in our sample are accreting planetary debris, and that fraction may be as high as 50%. * In most cases where debris pollution is detected

  8. Frost grain size metamorphism - Implications for remote sensing of planetary surfaces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Clark, R. N.; Fanale, F. P.; Zent, A. P.

    1983-01-01

    The effective grain size of a material on a planetary surface affects the strength of absorption features observed in the reflectance of a particulate surface. In the case of a planetary surface containing volatile ices, the absorption characteristics can change in connection with processes leading to a change in the grain size of the material. The present investigation is concerned with an evaluation regarding the occurrence of such processes and the implications for remote sensing applications. It is found that quantitative modeling of the kinetics of grain growth and destruction by thermal and nonthermal processes can provide a means to reconcile apparent optical paths in the volatile portions of planetary surfaces with the physical history of those surfaces. Attention is also given to conditions in the case of the Pluto/Triton system, Uranus and Saturnian satellites, and the Galilean system.

  9. Overview of a Proposed Flight Validation of Aerocapture System Technology for Planetary Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keys, Andrew S.; Hall, Jeffery L.; Oh, David; Munk, Michelle M.

    2006-01-01

    Aerocapture System Technology for Planetary Missions is being proposed to NASA's New Millennium Program for flight aboard the Space Technology 9 (ST9) flight opportunity. The proposed ST9 aerocapture mission is a system-level flight validation of the aerocapture maneuver as performed by an instrumented, high-fidelity flight vehicle within a true in-space and atmospheric environment. Successful validation of the aerocapture maneuver will be enabled through the flight validation of an advanced guidance, navigation, and control system as developed by Ball Aerospace and two advanced Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials, Silicon Refined Ablative Material-20 (SRAM-20) and SRAM-14, as developed by Applied Research Associates (ARA) Ablatives Laboratory. The ST9 aerocapture flight validation will be sufficient for immediate infusion of these technologies into NASA science missions being proposed for flight to a variety of Solar System destinations possessing a significant planetary atmosphere.

  10. Gravitational microlensing by double stars and planetary systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mao, Shunde; Paczynski, Bohdan

    1991-01-01

    Almost all stars are in binary systems. When the separation between the two components is comparable to the Einstein ring radius corresponding to the combined mass of the binary acting as a gravitational lens, then an extra pair of images can be created, and the light curve of a lensed source becomes complicated. It is estimated that about 10 percent of all lensing episodes of the Galactic bulge stars will strongly display the binary nature of the lens. The effect is strong even if the companion is a planet. A massive search for microlensing of the Galactic bulge stars may lead to a discovery of the first extrasolar planetary systems.

  11. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Outer Solar System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2004-01-01

    The session 'Outer Solar System" inlcuded:Monte Carlo Modeling of [O I] 630 nm Auroral Emission on Io; The Detection of Iron Sulfide on Io; Io and Loki in 2003 as Seen from the Infrared Telescope Facility Using Mutual Satellite and Jupiter Occultations; Mapping of the Zamama-Thor Region of Io; First Solar System Results of the Spitzer Space Telescope; Mapping the Surface of Pluto with the Hubble Space Telescope; Experimental Study on Fischer-Tropsch Catalysis in the Circum-Saturnian Subnebula; New High-Pressure Phases of Ammonia Dihydrate; Gas Hydrate Stability at Low Temperatures and High Pressures with Applications to Mars and Europa; Laboratory UV Photolysis of Planetary Ice Analogs Containing H2O + CO2 (1:1); The OH Stretch Infrared Band of Water Ice and Its Temperature and Radiation Dependence; Band Position Variations in Reflectance Spectra of the Jovian Satellite Ganymede; Comparison of Porosity and Radar Models for Europa s Near Surface; Combined Effects of Diurnal and Nonsynchronous Surface Stresses on Europa; Europa s Northern Trailing Hemisphere: Lineament Stratigraphic Framework; Europa at the Highest Resolution: Implications for Surface Processes and Landing Sites; Comparison of Methods to Determine Furrow System Centers on Ganymede and Callisto; Resurfacing of Ganymede by Liquid-Water Volcanism; Layered Ejecta Craters on Ganymede: Comparisons with Martian Analogs; Evaluation of the Possible Presence of CO2-Clathrates in Europa s Icy Shell or Seafloor; Geosciences at Jupiter s Icy Moons: The Midas Touch; Planetary Remote Sensing Science Enabled by MIDAS (Multiple Instrument Distributed Aperture Sensor); and In Situ Surveying of Saturn s Rings.

  12. SPICE for ESA Planetary Missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Costa, M.

    2017-09-01

    SPICE is an information system that provides the geometry needed to plan scientific observations and to analyze the obtained. The ESA SPICE Service generates the SPICE Kernel datasets for missions in all the active ESA Missions. This contribution describes the current status of the datasets, the extended services and the SPICE support provided to the ESA Planetary Missions (Mars-Express, ExoMars2016, BepiColombo, JUICE, Rosetta, Venus-Express and SMART-1) for the benefit of the science community.

  13. Electrostatic Phenomena on Planetary Surfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calle, Carlos I.

    2017-02-01

    The diverse planetary environments in the solar system react in somewhat different ways to the encompassing influence of the Sun. These different interactions define the electrostatic phenomena that take place on and near planetary surfaces. The desire to understand the electrostatic environments of planetary surfaces goes beyond scientific inquiry. These environments have enormous implications for both human and robotic exploration of the solar system. This book describes in some detail what is known about the electrostatic environment of the solar system from early and current experiments on Earth as well as what is being learned from the instrumentation on the space exploration missions (NASA, European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agency) of the last few decades. It begins with a brief review of the basic principles of electrostatics.

  14. Evolving the Technical Infrastructure of the Planetary Data System for the 21st Century

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Beebe, Reta F.; Crichton, D.; Hughes, S.; Grayzeck, E.

    2010-01-01

    The Planetary Data System (PDS) was established in 1989 as a distributed system to assure scientific oversight. Initially the PDS followed guidelines recommended by the National Academies Committee on Data Management and Computation (CODMAC, 1982) and placed emphasis on archiving validated datasets. But overtime user demands, supported by increased computing capabilities and communication methods, have placed increasing demands on the PDS. The PDS must add additional services to better enable scientific analysis within distributed environments and to ensure that those services integrate with existing systems and data. To face these challenges the Planetary Data System (PDS) must modernize its architecture and technical implementation. The PDS 2010 project addresses these challenges. As part of this project, the PDS has three fundamental project goals that include: (1) Providing more efficient client delivery of data by data providers to the PDS (2) Enabling a stable, long-term usable planetary science data archive (3) Enabling services for the data consumer to find, access and use the data they require in contemporary data formats. In order to achieve these goals, the PDS 2010 project is upgrading both the technical infrastructure and the data standards to support increased efficiency in data delivery as well as usability of the PDS. Efforts are underway to interface with missions as early as possible and to streamline the preparation and delivery of data to the PDS. Likewise, the PDS is working to define and plan for data services that will help researchers to perform analysis in cost-constrained environments. This presentation will cover the PDS 2010 project including the goals, data standards and technical implementation plans that are underway within the Planetary Data System. It will discuss the plans for moving from the current system, version PDS 3, to version PDS 4.

  15. Planetary system detection by POINTS

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Reasenberg, Robert D.

    1993-01-01

    The final report and semiannual reports 1, 2, and 3 in response to the study of 'Planetary System Detection by POINTS' is presented. The grant covered the period from 15 Jun. 1988 through 31 Dec. 1989. The work during that period comprised the further development and refinement of the POINTS concept. The status of the POINTS development at the end of the Grant period was described by Reasenberg in a paper given at the JPL Workshop on Space Interferometry, 12-13 Mar. 1990, and distributed as CfA Preprint 3138. That paper, 'POINTS: a Small Astrometric Interferometer,' follows as Appendix-A. Our proposal P2276-7-09, dated July 1990, included a more detailed description of the state of the development of POINTS at the end of the tenure of Grant NAGW-1355. That proposal, which resulted in Grant NAGW-2497, is included by reference.

  16. Surface Telerobotics: Development and Testing of a Crew Controlled Planetary Rover System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bualat, Maria G.; Fong, Terrence; Allan, Mark; Bouyssounouse, Xavier; Cohen, Tamar; Kobayashi, Linda

    2013-01-01

    In planning for future exploration missions, architecture and study teams have made numerous assumptions about how crew can be telepresent on a planetary surface by remotely operating surface robots from space (i.e. from a flight vehicle or deep space habitat). These assumptions include estimates of technology maturity, existing technology gaps, and operational risks. These assumptions, however, have not been grounded by experimental data. Moreover, to date, no crew-controlled surface telerobot has been fully tested in a high-fidelity manner. To address these issues, we developed the "Surface Telerobotics" tests to do three things: 1) Demonstrate interactive crew control of a mobile surface telerobot in the presence of short communications delay. 2) Characterize a concept of operations for a single astronaut remotely operating a planetary rover with limited support from ground control. 3) Characterize system utilization and operator work-load for a single astronaut remotely operating a planetary rover with limited support from ground control.

  17. Collisional and Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weidenschilling, Stuart J.

    2004-01-01

    Senior Scientst S. J. Weidenschilling presents his final administrative report in the research program entitled "Collisional and Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems," on which he was the Principal Investigator. This research program produced the following publications: 1) "Jumping Jupiters" in binary star systems. F. Marzari, S. J. Weidenschilling, M. Barbieri and V. Granata. Astrophys. J., in press, 2005; 2) Formation of the cores of the outer planets. To appear in "The Outer Planets" (R. Kallenbach, ED), ISSI Conference Proceedings (Space Sci. Rev.), in press, 2005; 3) Accretion dynamics and timescales: Relation to chondrites. S. J. Weidenschilling and J. Cuzzi. In Meteorites and the Early Solar System LI (D. Lauretta et al., Eds.), Univ. of Arizona Press, 2005; 4) Asteroidal heating and thermal stratification of the asteroid belt. A. Ghosh, S. J.Weidenschilling, H. Y. McSween, Jr. and A. Rubin. In Meteorites and the Early Solar System I1 (D. Lauretta et al., Eds.), Univ. of Arizona Press, 2005.

  18. SIM Lite Detection of Habitable Planets in P-Type Binary-Planetary Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pan, Xiaopei; Shao, Michael; Shaklan, Stuart; Goullioud, Renaud

    2010-01-01

    Close binary stars like spectroscopic binaries create a completely different environment than single stars for the evolution of a protoplanetary disk. Dynamical interactions between one star and protoplanets in such systems provide more challenges for theorists to model giant planet migration and formation of multiple planets. For habitable planets the majority of host stars are in binary star systems. So far only a small amount of Jupiter-size planets have been discovered in binary stars, whose minimum separations are 20 AU and the median value is about 1000 AU (because of difficulties in radial velocity measurements). The SIM Lite mission, a space-based astrometric observatory, has a unique capability to detect habitable planets in binary star systems. This work analyzed responses of the optical system to the field stop for companion stars and demonstrated that SIM Lite can observe exoplanets in visual binaries with small angular separations. In particular we investigated the issues for the search for terrestrial planets in P-type binary-planetary systems, where the planets move around both stars in a relatively distant orbit.

  19. Robotic Planetary Drill Tests

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Glass, Brian J.; Thompson, S.; Paulsen, G.

    2010-01-01

    Several proposed or planned planetary science missions to Mars and other Solar System bodies over the next decade require subsurface access by drilling. This paper discusses the problems of remote robotic drilling, an automation and control architecture based loosely on observed human behaviors in drilling on Earth, and an overview of robotic drilling field test results using this architecture since 2005. Both rotary-drag and rotary-percussive drills are targeted. A hybrid diagnostic approach incorporates heuristics, model-based reasoning and vibration monitoring with neural nets. Ongoing work leads to flight-ready drilling software.

  20. Planetary sample rapid recovery and handling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1985-01-01

    Methods for recovering and cost effectively handling planetary samples following return to the vicinity of Earth were designed for planetary mission planners. Three topics are addressed: (1) a rough cost estimate was produced for each of a series of options for the handling of planetary samples following their return to the vicinity of Earth; (2) the difficulty of quickly retrieving planetary samples from low circular and high elliptical Earth orbit is assessed; and (3) a conceptual design for a biological isolation and thermal control system for the returned sample and spacecraft is developed.

  1. Planetary Sciences: American and Soviet Research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Donahue, Thomas M. (Editor); Trivers, Kathleen Kearney (Editor); Abramson, David M. (Editor)

    1991-01-01

    Papers presented at the US-USSR Workshop on Planetary Sciences are compiled. The purpose of the workshop was to examine the current state of theoretical understanding of how the planets were formed and how they evolved to their present state. The workshop assessed the types of observations and experiments that are needed to advance understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system based on the current theoretical framework.

  2. Exploring our outer solar system - The Giant Planet System Observers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cooper, J. F.; Sittler, E. C., Jr.; Sturner, S. J.; Pitman, J. T.

    As space-faring peoples now work together to plan and implement future missions that robotically prepare for landing humans to explore the Moon, and later Mars, the time is right to develop evolutionary approaches for extending this next generation of exploration beyond Earth's terrestrial planet neighbors to the realm of the giant planets. And while initial fly-by missions have been hugely successful in providing exploratory surveys of what lies beyond Mars, we need to consider now what robotic precursor mission capabilities we need to emplace that prepare us properly, and comprehensively, for long-term robotic exploration, and eventual human habitation, beyond Mars to the outer reaches of our solar system. To develop practical strategies that can establish prioritized capabilities, and then develop a means for achieving those capabilities within realistic budget and technology considerations, and in reasonable timeframes, is our challenge. We suggest one component of such an approach to future outer planets exploration is a series of Giant Planets System Observer (GPSO) missions that provide for long- duration observations, monitoring, and relay functions to help advance our understanding of the outer planets and thereby enable a sound basis for planning their eventual exploration by humans. We envision these missions as being comparable to taking Hubble-class remote-sensing facilities, along with the space physics capabilities of long-lived geospace and heliospheric missions, to the giant planet systems and dedicating long observing lifetimes (HST, 16 yr.; Voyagers, 29 yr.) to the exhaustive study and characterization of those systems. GPSO missions could feature 20-yr+ extended mission lifetimes, direct inject trajectories to maximize useful lifetime on target, placement strategies that take advantage of natural environment shielding (e.g., Ganymede magnetic field) where possible, orbit designs having favorable planetary system viewing geometries, comprehensive

  3. Robotic vehicles for planetary exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilcox, Brian; Matthies, Larry; Gennery, Donald; Cooper, Brian; Nguyen, Tam; Litwin, Todd; Mishkin, Andrew; Stone, Henry

    A program to develop planetary rover technology is underway at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under sponsorship of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Developmental systems with the necessary sensing, computing, power, and mobility resources to demonstrate realistic forms of control for various missions have been developed, and initial testing has been completed. These testbed systems and the associated navigation techniques used are described. Particular emphasis is placed on three technologies: Computer-Aided Remote Driving (CARD), Semiautonomous Navigation (SAN), and behavior control. It is concluded that, through the development and evaluation of such technologies, research at JPL has expanded the set of viable planetary rover mission possibilities beyond the limits of remotely teleoperated systems such as Lunakhod. These are potentially applicable to exploration of all the solid planetary surfaces in the solar system, including Mars, Venus, and the moons of the gas giant planets.

  4. Robotic vehicles for planetary exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilcox, Brian; Matthies, Larry; Gennery, Donald; Cooper, Brian; Nguyen, Tam; Litwin, Todd; Mishkin, Andrew; Stone, Henry

    1992-01-01

    A program to develop planetary rover technology is underway at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under sponsorship of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Developmental systems with the necessary sensing, computing, power, and mobility resources to demonstrate realistic forms of control for various missions have been developed, and initial testing has been completed. These testbed systems and the associated navigation techniques used are described. Particular emphasis is placed on three technologies: Computer-Aided Remote Driving (CARD), Semiautonomous Navigation (SAN), and behavior control. It is concluded that, through the development and evaluation of such technologies, research at JPL has expanded the set of viable planetary rover mission possibilities beyond the limits of remotely teleoperated systems such as Lunakhod. These are potentially applicable to exploration of all the solid planetary surfaces in the solar system, including Mars, Venus, and the moons of the gas giant planets.

  5. Water Partitioning in Planetary Embryos and Protoplanets with Magma Oceans

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikoma, M.; Elkins-Tanton, L.; Hamano, K.; Suckale, J.

    2018-06-01

    The water content of magma oceans is widely accepted as a key factor that determines whether a terrestrial planet is habitable. Water ocean mass is determined as a result not only of water delivery and loss, but also of water partitioning among several reservoirs. Here we review our current understanding of water partitioning among the atmosphere, magma ocean, and solid mantle of accreting planetary embryos and protoplanets just after giant collisions. Magma oceans are readily formed in planetary embryos and protoplanets in their accretion phase. Significant amounts of water are partitioned into magma oceans, provided the planetary building blocks are water-rich enough. Particularly important but still quite uncertain issues are how much water the planetary building blocks contain initially and how water goes out of the solidifying mantle and is finally degassed to the atmosphere. Constraints from both solar-system explorations and exoplanet observations and also from laboratory experiments are needed to resolve these issues.

  6. An ecological compass for planetary engineering.

    PubMed

    Haqq-Misra, Jacob

    2012-10-01

    Proposals to address present-day global warming through the large-scale application of technology to the climate system, known as geoengineering, raise questions of environmental ethics relevant to the broader issue of planetary engineering. These questions have also arisen in the scientific literature as discussions of how to terraform a planet such as Mars or Venus in order to make it more Earth-like and habitable. Here we draw on insights from terraforming and environmental ethics to develop a two-axis comparative tool for ethical frameworks that considers the intrinsic or instrumental value placed upon organisms, environments, planetary systems, or space. We apply this analysis to the realm of planetary engineering, such as terraforming on Mars or geoengineering on present-day Earth, as well as to questions of planetary protection and space exploration.

  7. Influence of periodic orbits on the formation of giant planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Libert, Anne-Sophie; Sotiriadis, Sotiris; Antoniadou, Kyriaki I.

    2018-02-01

    The late-stage formation of giant planetary systems is rich in interesting dynamical mechanisms. Previous simulations of three giant planets initially on quasi-circular and quasi-coplanar orbits in the gas disc have shown that highly mutually inclined configurations can be formed, despite the strong eccentricity and inclination damping exerted by the disc. Much attention has been directed to inclination-type resonance, asking for large eccentricities to be acquired during the migration of the planets. Here we show that inclination excitation is also present at small to moderate eccentricities in two-planet systems that have previously experienced an ejection or a merging and are close to resonant commensurabilities at the end of the gas phase. We perform a dynamical analysis of these planetary systems, guided by the computation of planar families of periodic orbits and the bifurcation of families of spatial periodic orbits. We show that inclination excitation at small to moderate eccentricities can be produced by (temporary) capture in inclination-type resonance and the possible proximity of the non-coplanar systems to spatial periodic orbits contributes to maintaining their mutual inclination over long periods of time.

  8. Far-infrared line observations of planetary nebulae. 1: The O 3 spectrum

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dinerstein, H. L.; Lester, D. F.; Werner, M. W.

    1985-01-01

    Observations of the far-infrared fine structure lines of O III have been obtained for six planetary nebulae. The infrared measurements are combined with optical O III line fluxes to probe physical conditions in the gas. From the observed line intensity ratios, a simultaneous solution was obtained for electron temperature and density, as well as means of evaluating the importance of inhomogeneities. Densities determined from the far-infrared O III lines agree well density diagnostics from other ions, indicating a fairly homogeneous density in the emitting gas. Temperatures are determined separately from the O III 4363/5007 A and 5007 A/52 micron intensity ratios and compared. Systematically higher values are derived from the former ratio, which is expected from a nebula which is not isothermal. Allowance for the presence of temperature variations within these nebulae raises their derived oxygen abundances, determinations to be reconciled with the solar value.

  9. Solar System Observing with the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cleve, J. Van; Meadows, V. S.; Stansberry, J.

    2003-01-01

    SIRTF is NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility. Currently planned for launch on 15 Apr 2003, it is the final element in NASA's Great Observatories Program. SIRTF has an 85 cm diameter f/12 lightweight beryllium telescope, cooled to lekss than 5.5K. It is diffraction-limited at 6.5 microns, and has wavelengthcoverage from 3-180 microns. Its estimated lifetime (limited by cryogen) is 2.5 years at minimum, with a goal of 5+ years. SIRTF has three instruments, IRAC, IRS, and MIPS. IRAC (InfraRed Array Camera) provides simultaneous images at wavelengths of 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns. IRS (InfraRed Spectrograph) has 4 modules providing low-resolution (R=60-120) spectra from 5.3 to 40 microns, high-resolution (R=600) spectra from 10 to 37 microns, and an autonomous target acquisition system (PeakUp) which includes small-field imaging at 15 microns. MIPS (Multiband Imaging Photometer for SIRTF)} does imaging photometry at 24, 70, and 160 m and low-resolution (R=15-25) spectroscopy (SED) between 55 and 96 microns. The SIRTF Guaranteed Time Observers (GTOs) are planning to observe Outer Solar System satellites and planets, extinct comets and low-albedo asteroids, Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects, cometary dust trails, and a few active short-period comets. The GTO programs are listed in detail in the SIRTF Reserved Observations Catalog (ROC). We would like to emphasize that there remain many interesting subjects for the General Observers (GO). Proposal success for the planetary observer community in the first SIRTF GO proposal cycle (GO-1) determines expectations for future GO calls and Solar System use of SIRTF, so we would like promote a strong set of planetary GO-1 proposals. Towards that end, we present this poster, and we will convene a Solar System GO workshop 3.5 months after launch.

  10. Rise of planetary bodies.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Czechowski, Z.; Leliwa-Kopystyński, J.; Teisseyre, R.

    Contents: 1. On the probability of the formation of planetary systems. 2. Condensation triggered by supernova explosion and tidal capture theory. 3. Foundations of accretion theory. 4. The structure and evolution of the protoplanetary disk. 5. Coagulation of orbiting bodies. 6. Collision phenomena related to planetology: accretion, fragmentation, cratering. 7. Dynamics of planetesimals: Introduction, Safronov's approach, elements of the kinetic theory of gases, Nakagawa's approach, approaches considering inelastic collisions and gravitational encounters of planetesimals, Hämeen-Anttila approach, planetesimals with different masses. 8. Growth of the planetary embryo: Basic equations, model of growth of planetary embryos. 9. Origin of the Moon and the satellites.

  11. Determination of hyperfine-induced transition rates from observations of a planetary nebula.

    PubMed

    Brage, Tomas; Judge, Philip G; Proffitt, Charles R

    2002-12-31

    Observations of the planetary nebula NGC3918 made with the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope reveal the first unambiguous detection of a hyperfine-induced transition 2s2p 3P(o)(0)-->2s2 1S0 in the berylliumlike emission line spectrum of N IV at 1487.89 A. A nebular model allows us to confirm a transition rate of 4x10(-4) sec(-1)+/-33% for this line. The measurement represents the first independent confirmation of the transition rate of hyperfine-induced lines in low ionization stages, and it provides support for the techniques used to compute these transitions for the determination of very low densities and isotope ratios.

  12. Magnetic fields in central stars of planetary nebulae?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jordan, S.; Bagnulo, S.; Werner, K.; O'Toole, S. J.

    2012-06-01

    Context. Most planetary nebulae have bipolar or other non-spherically symmetric shapes. Magnetic fields in the central star may be responsible for this lack of symmetry, but observational studies published to date have reported contradictory results. Aims: We search for correlations between a magnetic field and departures from the spherical geometry of the envelopes of planetary nebulae. Methods: We determine the magnetic fields from spectropolarimetric observations of ten central stars of planetary nebulae. The results of the analysis of the observations of four stars were previously presented and discussed in the literature, while the observations of six stars, plus additional measurements of a star previously observed, are presented here for the first time. Results: All our determinations of magnetic field in the central planetary nebulae are consistent with null results. Our field measurements have a typical error bar of 150-300 G. Previous spurious field detections using data acquired with FORS1 (FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph) of the Unit Telescope 1 (UT1) of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) were probably due to the use of different wavelength calibration solutions for frames obtained at different position angles of the retarder waveplate. Conclusions: There is currently no observational evidence of magnetic fields with a strength of the order of hundreds Gauss or higher in the central stars of planetary nebulae. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile, under programme ID 072.D-0089 (PI = Jordan) and 075.D-0289 (PI = Jordan).

  13. The journey of Typhon-Echidna as a binary system through the planetary region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Araujo, R. A. N.; Galiazzo, M. A.; Winter, O. C.; Sfair, R.

    2018-06-01

    Among the current population of the 81 known trans-Neptunian binaries (TNBs), only two are in orbits that cross the orbit of Neptune. These are (42355) Typhon-Echidna and (65489) Ceto-Phorcys. In this work, we focused our analyses on the temporal evolution of the Typhon-Echidna binary system through the outer and inner planetary systems. Using numerical integrations of the N-body gravitational problem, we explored the orbital evolutions of 500 clones of Typhon, recording the close encounters of those clones with planets. We then analysed the effects of those encounters on the binary system. It was found that only {≈ }22 per cent of the encounters with the giant planets were strong enough to disrupt the binary. This binary system has an ≈ 3.6 per cent probability of reaching the terrestrial planetary region over a time-scale of approximately 5.4 Myr. Close encounters of Typhon-Echidna with Earth and Venus were also registered, but the probabilities of such events occurring are low ({≈}0.4 per cent). The orbital evolution of the system in the past was also investigated. It was found that in the last 100 Myr, Typhon might have spent most of its time as a TNB crossing the orbit of Neptune. Therefore, our study of the Typhon-Echidna orbital evolution illustrates the possibility of large cometary bodies (radii of 76 km for Typhon and 42 km for Echidna) coming from a remote region of the outer Solar system and that might enter the terrestrial planetary region preserving its binarity throughout the journey.

  14. Mars Technology Program Planetary Protection Technology Development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lin, Ying

    2006-01-01

    The objectives of the NASA Planetary Protection program are to preserve biological and organic conditions of solar-system bodies for future scientific exploration and to protect the Earth from potential hazardous extraterrestrial contamination. As the exploration of solar system continues, NASA remains committed to the implementation of planetary protection policy and regulations. To fulfill this commitment, the Mars Technology Program (MTP) has invested in a portfolio of tasks for developing necessary technologies to meet planetary protection requirements for the next decade missions.

  15. Outer-planet scattering can gently tilt an inner planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gratia, Pierre; Fabrycky, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    Chaotic dynamics are expected during and after planet formation, and a leading mechanism to explain large eccentricities of gas giant exoplanets is planet-planet gravitational scattering. The same scattering has been invoked to explain misalignments of planetary orbital planes with respect to their host star's spin. However, an observational puzzle is presented by Kepler-56, which has two inner planets (b and c) that are nearly coplanar with each other, yet are more than 45° inclined to their star's equator. Thus, the spin-orbit misalignment might be primordial. Instead, we further develop the hypothesis in the discovery paper, that planets on wider orbits generated misalignment through scattering, and as a result gently torqued the inner planets away from the equator plane of the star. We integrated the equations of motion for Kepler-56 b and c along with an unstable outer system initialized with either two or three Jupiter-mass planets. We address here whether the violent scattering that generates large mutual inclinations can leave the inner system intact, tilting it gently. In almost all of the cases initially with two outer planets, either the inner planets remain nearly coplanar with each other in the star's equator plane, or they are scattered violently to high mutual inclination and high spin-orbit misalignment. On the contrary, of the systems with three unstable outer planets, a spin-orbit misalignment large enough to explain the observations is generated 28 per cent of the time for coplanar inner planets, which is consistent with the observed frequency of this phenomenon reported so far. We conclude that multiple-planet scattering in the outer parts of the system may account for this new population of coplanar planets hosted by oblique stars.

  16. Solar System atlas series on the Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary: textbooks for space and planetary science education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berczi, Sz.; Hargitai, H.; Horvath, A.; Illes, E.; Kereszturi, A.; Mortl, M.; Sik, A.; Weidinger, T.; Hegyi, S.; Hudoba, Gy.

    Planetary science education needs new forms of teaching. Our group have various initiatives of which a new atlas series about the studies of the Solar System materials, planetary surfaces and atmospheres, instrumental field works with robots (landers, rovers) and other beautiful field work analog studies. Such analog studies are both used in comparative planetology as scientific method and it also plays a key role in planetary science education. With such initiatives the whole system of the knowledge of terrestrial geology can be transformed to the conditions of other planetary worlds. We prepared both courses and their textbooks in Eötvös University in space science education and edited the following educational materials worked out by the members of our space science education and research group: (1): Planetary and Material Maps on: Lunar Rocks, Meteorites (2000); (2): Investigating Planetary Surfaces with the Experimental Space Probe Hunveyor Constructed on the Basis of Surveyor (2001); (3): Atlas of Planetary Bodies (2001); (4): Atlas of Planetary Atmospheres (2002); (5): Space Research and Geometry (2002); (6): Atlas of Micro Environments of Planetary Surfaces (2003); (7): Atlas of Rovers and Activities on Planetary Surfaces (2004); (8): Space Research and Chemistry (2005); (9): Planetary Analog Studies and Simulations: Materials, Terrains, Morphologies, Processes. (2005); References: [1] Bérczi Sz., Hegyi S., Kovács Zs., Fabriczy A., Földi T., Keresztesi M., Cech V., Drommer B., Gránicz K., Hevesi L., Borbola T., Tóth Sz., Németh I., Horváth Cs., Diósy T., Kovács B., Bordás F., Köll˝ Z., Roskó F., Balogh Zs., Koris A., o 1 Imrek Gy. (Bérczi Sz., Kabai S. Eds.) (2002): Concise Atlas of the Solar System (2): From Surveyor to Hunveyor. How we constructed an experimental educational planetary lander model. UNICONSTANT. Budapest-Pécs-Szombathely-Püspökladány. [2] Bérczi Sz., Hargitai H., Illés E., Kereszturi Á., Sik A., Földi T., Hegyi S

  17. An observation about the relative hardiness of bacterial spores and planetary quarantine

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trauth, C. A., Jr.

    1973-01-01

    Planetary quarantine objectives are shown to be critically dependent on the deviation in the actual decimal-reduction-time or D values (i.e., the time necessary to reduce the population to one-tenth of its original value) of organisms on spacecraft from the values chosen for spacecraft sterilization that have been selected conservatively relative to defined experimental procedures and bacterial spore stocks. New data indicate that these D values are not conservative when compared with those of naturally occurring organisms. The possible implications of these new data for planetary quarantine are analyzed.

  18. Archiving Mars Mission Data Sets with the Planetary Data System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Guinness, Edward A.

    2006-01-01

    This viewgraph presentation reviews the use of the Planetary Data System (PDS) to archive the datasets that are received from the Mars Missions. It reviews the lessons learned in the actual archiving process, and presents an overview of the actual archiving process. It also reviews the lessons learned from the perspectives of the projects, the data producers and the data users.

  19. The Saturn Ring Observer: In situ studies of planetary rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nicholson, P. D.; Tiscareno, M. S.; Spilker, L. J.

    2010-12-01

    As part of the Planetary Science Decadal Survey recently undertaken by the NRC's Space Studies Board for the National Academy of Sciences, studies were commissioned for a number of potential missions to outer planet targets. One of these studies examined the technological feasibility of a mission to carry out in situ studies of Saturn's rings, from a spacecraft placed in a circular orbit above the ring plane: the Saturn Ring Observer. The technical findings and background are discussed in a companion poster by T. R. Spilker et al. Here we outline the science goals of such a mission. Most of the fundamental interactions in planetary rings occur on spatial scales that are unresolved by flyby or orbiter spacecraft. Typical particle sizes in the rings of Saturn are in the 1 cm - 10 m range, and average interparticle spacings are a few meters. Indirect evidence indicates that the vertical thickness of the rings is as little as 5 - 10 m, which implies a velocity dispersion of only a few mm/sec. Theories of ring structure and evolution depend on the unknown characteristics of interparticle collisions and on the size distribution of the ring particles. The SRO could provide direct measurements of both the coefficient of restitution -- by monitoring individual collisions -- and the particles’ velocity dispersion. High-resolution observations of individual ring particles should also permit estimates of their spin states. Numerical simulations of Saturn’s rings incorporating both collisions and self-gravity predict that the ring particles are not uniformly distributed, but are instead clustered into elongated structures referred to as “self-gravity wakes”, which are continually created and destroyed on an orbital timescale. Theory indicates that the average separation between wakes in the A ring is of order 30-100 m. Direct imaging of self-gravity wakes, including their formation and subsequent dissolution, would provide critical validation of these models. Other

  20. Integration of planetary protection activities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Race, Margaret S.

    1995-01-01

    For decades, NASA has been concerned about the protection of planets and other solar system bodies from biological contamination. Its policies regarding biological contamination control for outbound and inbound planetary spacecraft have evolved to focus on three important areas: (1) the preservation of celestial objects and the space environment; (2) protection of Earth from extraterrestrial hazards; and (3) ensuring the integrity of its scientific investigations. Over the years as new information has been obtained from planetary exploration and research, planetary protection parameters and policies have been modified accordingly. The overall focus of research under this cooperative agreement has been to provide information about non-scientific and societal factors related to planetary protection and use it in the planning and implementation phases of future Mars sample return missions.

  1. Ground-based observation of the cyclic nature and temporal variability of planetary-scale UV features at the Venus cloud top level

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Imai, Masataka; Takahashi, Yukihiro; Watanabe, Makoto; Kouyama, Toru; Watanabe, Shigeto; Gouda, Shuhei; Gouda, Yuya

    2016-11-01

    A planetary-scale bright and dark UV feature, known as the ;Y-feature,; rotates around Venus with a period of 4-5 days and has been long-time interpreted as planetary waves. When assuming this, its rotation period and spatial structure might help to understand the propagation of the planetary-scale waves and find out their role in the acceleration-deceleration of the zonal wind speed, which is essential for understanding the super-rotation of the planet. The rotation period of the UV feature varied over the course of observation by the Pioneer Venus orbiter. However, in previous explorations of Venus such as Pioneer Venus and Venus Express, the spacecraft were operated in nearly fixed inertial space. As a result, the periodicity variations on sub-yearly timescales (one Venusian year is ∼224 Earth days) were obscured by the limitations of continuous dayside observations. We newly conducted six periods of ground-based Venus imaging observations at 365 nm from mid-August 2013 to the end of June 2014. Each observation period spanned over half or one month, enabling long-term monitoring of Venus' atmosphere above the equator region. Distributions of the relative brightness were obtained from the equatorial (EQ) to mid-latitudinal regions in both hemispheres, and from the cyclical variations of these distributions we deduced the rotation periods of the UV features of the cloud tops brightness. The relative brightness exhibited periods of 5.2 and 3.5 days above 90% of significance. The relative intensities of these two significant components also seemed subject to temporal variations. Although the 3.5-day component considered persists throughout the observation periods, its dominance over the longer period varied in a cyclic fashion. The prevailing first significant mode seems to change from 5.2-day waves to 3.5-day waves in about nine months, which is clearly inconsistent with the Venusian year. Clear periodic perturbations, indicating stability of the planetary

  2. Richest Planetary System Discovered - Up to seven planets orbiting a Sun-like star

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2010-08-01

    seven planets orbiting HD 10180: probing the architecture of low-mass planetary systems" by C. Lovis et al.). The team is composed of C. Lovis, D. Ségransan, M. Mayor, S. Udry, F. Pepe, and D. Queloz (Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, Switzerland), W. Benz (Universität Bern, Switzerland), F. Bouchy (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France), C. Mordasini (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany), N. C. Santos (Universidade do Porto, Portugal), J. Laskar (Observatoire de Paris, France), A. Correia (Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal), and J.-L. Bertaux (Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, France) and G. Lo Curto (ESO). ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and VISTA, the world's largest survey telescope. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 42-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

  3. Submillimeter Remote Sensing of Planetary and Cometary Atmospheres and LRO/LCROSS Observations of the Moon

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chin, Gordon

    2011-01-01

    Submillimeter remote sensing of planetary and cometary atmospheres have been proposed for Venus and Mars while MIRO on Rosetta will observe the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov - Cierasimenko in December 2015, UARS and AURA MLS have observed millimeter and submillimeter molecule emissions in the Earth's stratosphere for many decades, Observations of submillimeter wave molecular emissions provide a wealth of information not obtainable by alternative techniques. Submillimeter line emissions exhibit linear temperature dependence, insensitivity to aerosol scattering, extinction, and have separated transitions with well determined line-shapes. These observations have high sensitivities to trace chemical species and can; 1) Fully resolve the line profiles of molecules with high resolution, 2) Provide deterministic retrievals of species abundance, temperature, and pressure, and 3) Measure Doppler shifts of detected molecules for wind velocities.

  4. The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Planetary and Low-Luminosity Object Transits in the Fields of Galactic Disk. Results of the 2003 OGLE Observing Campaigns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Udalski, A.; Szymanski, M. K.; Kubiak, M.; Pietrzynski, G.; Soszynski, I.; Zebrun, K.; Szewczyk, O.; Wyrzykowski, L.

    2004-12-01

    We present results of two observing campaigns conducted by the OGLE-III survey in the 2003 observing season aiming at the detection of new objects with planetary transiting companions. Six fields of 35'x35' each located in the Galactic disk were monitored with high frequency for several weeks in February-July 2003. Additional observations of three of these fields were also collected in the 2004 season. Altogether about 800 and 1500 epochs were collected for the fields of both campaigns, respectively. The search for low depth transits was conducted on about 230 000 stars with photometry better than 15 mmag. It was focused on detection of planetary companions, thus clear non-planetary cases were not included in the final list of selected objects. Altogether we discovered 40 stars with shallow (<=0.05 mag) flat-bottomed transits. In each case several individual transits were observed allowing determination of photometric elements. Additionally, the lower limits on radii of the primary and companion were calculated. From the photometric point of view the new OGLE sample contains many very good candidates for extrasolar transiting planets. However, only the future spectroscopic follow-up observations of the OGLE sample - determination of the amplitude of radial velocity and exclusion of blending possibilities - may allow to confirm their planetary status. In general, the transiting objects may be extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, M-type dwarfs or fake transits caused by blending. All photometric data of objects with transiting companions discovered during the 2003 campaigns are available to the astronomical community from the OGLE Internet archive.

  5. Regolith-Derived Heat Shield for Planetary Body Entry and Descent System with In-Situ Fabrication

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hogue, Michael D.; Mueller, Robert P.; Sibille, Laurent; Hintze, Paul E.; Rasky, Daniel J.

    2012-01-01

    High-mass planetary surface access is one of NASA's Grand Challenges involving entry, descent, and landing (EDL). Heat shields fabricated in-situ can provide a thermal protection system for spacecraft that routinely enter a planetary atmosphere. Fabricating the heat shield from extraterrestrial regolith will avoid the costs of launching the heat shield mass from Earth. This project will investigate three methods to fabricate heat shield using extraterrestrial regolith.

  6. Reconfigurable Autonomy for Future Planetary Rovers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burroughes, Guy

    Extra-terrestrial Planetary rover systems are uniquely remote, placing constraints in regard to communication, environmental uncertainty, and limited physical resources, and requiring a high level of fault tolerance and resistance to hardware degradation. This thesis presents a novel self-reconfiguring autonomous software architecture designed to meet the needs of extraterrestrial planetary environments. At runtime it can safely reconfigure low-level control systems, high-level decisional autonomy systems, and managed software architecture. The architecture can perform automatic Verification and Validation of self-reconfiguration at run-time, and enables a system to be self-optimising, self-protecting, and self-healing. A novel self-monitoring system, which is non-invasive, efficient, tunable, and autonomously deploying, is also presented. The architecture was validated through the use-case of a highly autonomous extra-terrestrial planetary exploration rover. Three major forms of reconfiguration were demonstrated and tested: first, high level adjustment of system internal architecture and goal; second, software module modification; and third, low level alteration of hardware control in response to degradation of hardware and environmental change. The architecture was demonstrated to be robust and effective in a Mars sample return mission use-case testing the operational aspects of a novel, reconfigurable guidance, navigation, and control system for a planetary rover, all operating in concert through a scenario that required reconfiguration of all elements of the system.

  7. The Planetary Science Archive (PSA): Exploration and discovery of scientific datasets from ESA's planetary missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vallat, C.; Besse, S.; Barbarisi, I.; Arviset, C.; De Marchi, G.; Barthelemy, M.; Coia, D.; Costa, M.; Docasal, R.; Fraga, D.; Heather, D. J.; Lim, T.; Macfarlane, A.; Martinez, S.; Rios, C.; Vallejo, F.; Said, J.

    2017-09-01

    The Planetary Science Archive (PSA) is the European Space Agency's (ESA) repository of science data from all planetary science and exploration missions. The PSA provides access to scientific datasets through various interfaces at http://psa.esa.int. All datasets are scientifically peer-reviewed by independent scientists, and are compliant with the Planetary Data System (PDS) standards. The PSA has started to implement a number of significant improvements, mostly driven by the evolution of the PDS standards, and the growing need for better interfaces and advanced applications to support science exploitation.

  8. Planetary Evolution, Habitability and Life

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tilman, Spohn; Breuer, Doris; de Vera, Jean-Pierre; Jaumann, Ralf; Kuehrt, Ekkehard; Möhlmann, Diedrich; Rauer, Heike; Richter, Lutz

    A Helmholtz Alliance has been established to study the interactions between life and the evo-lution of planets. The approach goes beyond current studies in Earth-System Sciences by including the entire planet from the atmosphere to the deep interior, going beyond Earth to include other Earth-like planets such as Mars and Venus and satellites in the solar system where ecosystems may exist underneath thick ice shells,considering other solar systems. The approach includes studies of the importance of plate tectonics and other tectonic regimes such as single plate tectonics for the development and for sustaining life and asks the question: If life can adapt to a planet, can a planet adapt to life? Can life be seen as a geological process and if so, can life shape the conditions on a planet such that life can flourish? The vision goes beyond the solar system by including the challenges that life would face in other solar systems. The Alliance uses theoretical modelling of feedback cycles and coupled planetary atmosphere and interior processes. These models are based on the results of remote sensing of planetary surfaces and atmospheres, laboratory studies on (meteorite) samples from other planets and on studies of life under extreme conditions. The Alliance uses its unique capabilities in remote sensing and in-situ exploration to prepare for empirical studies of the parameters affecting habitability. The Alliance aims to establish a network infrastructure in Germany to enable the most ad-vanced research in planetary evolution studies by including life as a planetary process. Finding extraterrestrial life is a task of fundamental importance to mankind, and its fulfilment will be philosophically profound. Evaluating the interactions between planetary evolution and life will help to put the evolution of our home planet (even anthropogenic effects) into perspective.

  9. International Ultraviolet Explorer observations of the white dwarf nucleus of the very old, diffuse planetary nebula, IW-2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bruhweiler, F. C.; Feibelman, Walter A.

    1993-01-01

    UV low-dispersion spectra of the central star of the faint planetary nebula, IW-2, were obtained with the IUE. The apparent large diameter of the very diffuse nebula, about half that of the moon, as seen on the Palomar Sky Survey plates by Ishida and Weinberger (1987), indicates this object to be potentially quite evolved, and nearby. The IUE spectra clearly reveal a hot stellar continuum extending over the entire wavelength range of the short-wavelength prime camera (1200-2000 A). This object with V = 17.7 +/- 0.4 is definitely one of the faintest stars ever successfully observed with the IUE. Comparisons of the IUE observed fluxes with those from white dwarf model atmospheres suggest extinction near E(B - V) = 0.45 for a white dwarf of T(eff) roughly 100,000 K. Constraints from estimates of the nebular emission measure and observed visual magnitude also argue for a white dwarf of T(eff) roughly 100,000 K at a distance of 300 to 350 pc. The nucleus of IW-2 is one of the most evolved stars to be identified with a planetary nebula.

  10. Campaign of AAVSO Monitoring of the CH Cyg Symbiotic System in Support of Chandra and HST Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karovska, M.

    2013-06-01

    (Abstract only) CH Cyg is one of the most interesting interacting binaries in which a compact object, a white dwarf or a neutron star, accretes from the wind of an evolved giant or supergiant. CH Cyg is a member of the symbiotic systems group, and at about 250pc it is one of the closest systems. Symbiotic systems are accreting binaries, which are likely progenitors of a fraction of Pre-Planetary and Planetary Nebulae, and of a fraction of SN type Ia (the cosmic distance scale indicators). We carried out Chandra and HST observations of CH Cyg in March 2012 as part of a follow-up investigation of the central region of CH Cyg and its precessing jet, including the multi-structures that were discovered in 2008. I will describe here the campaign of multi-wavelength observations, including photometry and spectroscopy, that were carried out by AAVSO members in support of the space-based observations.

  11. When Worlds Collide: Witnessing Planetary-Scale Impacts in the Coming Decades

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masiero, J. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.

    2017-02-01

    Asteroid impacts offer a unique opportunity to study the collisional processes that shape planetary systems. In the coming decades, expanded surveys may give us the chance to predict an impact with enough advance warning to observe it in situ.

  12. The (Un)Lonely Planet Guide: Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems from a ``Blue Dots'' Perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, M. R.

    2010-10-01

    In this contribution I summarize some recent successes, and focus on remaining challenges, in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems in the context of the Blue Dots initiative. Because our understanding is incomplete, we cannot yet articulate a design reference mission engineering matrix suitable for an exploration mission where success is defined as obtaining a spectrum of a potentially habitable world around a nearby star. However, as progress accelerates, we can identify observational programs that would address fundamental scientific questions through hypothesis testing such that the null result is interesting.

  13. Planetary Protection Technologies: Technical Challenges for Mars Exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Buxbaum, Karen L.

    2005-01-01

    The search for life in the solar system, using either in situ analysis or sample return, brings with it special technical challenges in the area of planetary protection. Planetary protection (PP) requires planetary explorers to preserve biological and organic conditions for future exploration and to protect the Earth from potential extraterrestrial contamination that could occur as a result of sample return to the Earth-Moon system. In view of the exploration plans before us, the NASA Solar System Exploration Program Roadmap published in May 2003 identified planetary protection as one of 13 technologies for "high priority technology investments." Recent discoveries at Mars and Jupiter, coupled with new policies, have made this planning for planetary protection technology particularly challenging and relevant.New missions to Mars have been formulated, which present significantly greater forward contamination potential. New policies, including the introduction by COSPAR of a Category IVc for planetary protection, have been adopted by COSPAR in response. Some missions may not be feasible without the introduction of new planetary protection technologies. Other missions may be technically possible but planetary protection requirements may be so costly to implement with current technology that they are not affordable. A strategic investment strategy will be needed to focus on technology investments designed to enable future missions and reduce the costs of future missions. This presentation will describe some of the potential technological pathways that may be most protective.

  14. Organic materials in planetary and protoplanetary systems: nature or nurture?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dalle Ore, C. M.; Fulchignoni, M.; Cruikshank, D. P.; Barucci, M. A.; Brunetto, R.; Campins, H.; de Bergh, C.; Debes, J. H.; Dotto, E.; Emery, J. P.; Grundy, W. M.; Jones, A. P.; Mennella, V.; Orthous-Daunay, F. R.; Owen, T.; Pascucci, I.; Pendleton, Y. J.; Pinilla-Alonso, N.; Quirico, E.; Strazzulla, G.

    2011-09-01

    Aims: The objective of this work is to summarize the discussion of a workshop aimed at investigating the properties, origins, and evolution of the materials that are responsible for the red coloration of the small objects in the outer parts of the solar system. Because of limitations or inconsistencies in the observations and, until recently, the limited availability of laboratory data, there are still many questions on the subject. Our goal is to approach two of the main questions in a systematic way: - Is coloring an original signature of materials that are presolar in origin ("nature") or stems from post-formational chemical alteration, or weathering ("nurture")? - What is the chemical signature of the material that causes spectra to be sloped towards the red in the visible? We examine evidence available both from the laboratory and from observations sampling different parts of the solar system and circumstellar regions (disks). Methods: We present a compilation of brief summaries gathered during the workshop and describe the evidence towards a primordial vs. evolutionary origin for the material that reddens the small objects in the outer parts of our, as well as in other, planetary systems. We proceed by first summarizing laboratory results followed by observational data collected at various distances from the Sun. Results: While laboratory experiments show clear evidence of irradiation effects, particularly from ion bombardment, the first obstacle often resides in the ability to unequivocally identify the organic material in the observations. The lack of extended spectral data of good quality and resolution is at the base of this problem. Furthermore, that both mechanisms, weathering and presolar, act on the icy materials in a spectroscopically indistinguishable way makes our goal of defining the impact of each mechanism challenging. Conclusions: Through a review of some of the workshop presentations and discussions, encompassing laboratory experiments as well

  15. Regolith-Derived Heat Shield for Planetary Body Entry and Descent System with In-Situ Fabrication

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hogue, Michael D.; Mueller, Robert P.; Sibille, Laurent; Hintze, Paul E.; Rasky, Daniel J.

    2012-01-01

    High-mass planetary surface access is one of NASA's Grand Challenges involving entry, descent, and landing (EDL). Heat shields fabricated in-situ can provide a thermal protection system for spacecraft that routinely enter a planetary atmosphere. Fabricating the heat shield from extraterrestrial regolith will avoid the costs of launching the heat shield mass from Earth. This project investigated three methods to fabricate heat shield using extraterrestrial regolith and performed preliminary work on mission architectures.

  16. Results from the Science Instrument Definition Team for the Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chanover, Nancy J.; Aslam, Shahid; DiSanti, Michael A.; Hibbitts, Charles A.; Honniball, Casey I.; Paganini, Lucas; Parker, Alex; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Young, Eliot F.

    2016-10-01

    The Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science (GHAPS) is an observing asset under development by NASA's Planetary Science Division that will be hosted on stratospheric balloon missions intended for use by the broad planetary science community. GHAPS is being designed in a modular fashion to interface to a suite of instruments as called for by science needs. It will operate at an altitude of 30+ km and will include an optical telescope assembly with a 1-meter aperture and a pointing stability of approximately 1 arcsecond with a flight duration of ~100 days. The spectral grasp of the system is envisaged to include wavelengths spanning the near-ultraviolet to near/mid-infrared (~0.3-5 µm) and possibly to longer wavelengths.The GHAPS Science Instrument Definition Team (SIDT) was convened in May 2016 to define the scope of science investigations, derive the science requirements and instrument concepts for GHAPS, prioritize the instruments according to science priorities that address Planetary Science Decadal Survey questions, and generate a report that is broadly disseminated to the planetary science community. The SIDT examined a wide range of solar system targets and science questions, focusing on unique measurements that could be made from a balloon-borne platform to address high-priority planetary science questions for a fraction of the cost of space missions. The resulting instrument concepts reflect unique capabilities offered by a balloon-borne platform (e.g., observations at spectral regions inaccessible from the ground due to telluric absorption, diffraction-limited imaging, and long duration uninterrupted observations of a target). We discuss example science cases that can be addressed with GHAPS and describe a notional instrument suite that can be used by guest observers to pursue decadal-level science questions.

  17. Sustainable food systems for optimal planetary health.

    PubMed

    Canavan, Chelsey R; Noor, Ramadhani A; Golden, Christopher D; Juma, Calestous; Fawzi, Wafaie

    2017-06-01

    Sustainable food systems are an important component of a planetary health strategy to reduce the threat of infectious disease, minimize environmental footprint and promote nutrition. Human population trends and dietary transition have led to growing demand for food and increasing production and consumption of meat, amid declining availability of arable land and water. The intensification of livestock production has serious environmental and infectious disease impacts. Land clearing for agriculture alters ecosystems, increases human-wildlife interactions and leads to disease proliferation. Context-specific interventions should be evaluated towards optimizing nutrition resilience, minimizing environmental footprint and reducing animal and human disease risk. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

  18. Planetary boundaries for a blue planet.

    PubMed

    Nash, Kirsty L; Cvitanovic, Christopher; Fulton, Elizabeth A; Halpern, Benjamin S; Milner-Gulland, E J; Watson, Reg A; Blanchard, Julia L

    2017-11-01

    Concepts underpinning the planetary boundaries framework are being incorporated into multilateral discussions on sustainability, influencing international environmental policy development. Research underlying the boundaries has primarily focused on terrestrial systems, despite the fundamental role of marine biomes for Earth system function and societal wellbeing, seriously hindering the efficacy of the boundary approach. We explore boundaries from a marine perspective. For each boundary, we show how improved integration of marine systems influences our understanding of the risk of crossing these limits. Better integration of marine systems is essential if planetary boundaries are to inform Earth system governance.

  19. Planetary Science Enabled by High Power Ion Propulsion Systems from NASA's Prometheus Program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cooper, John

    2004-11-01

    NASA's Prometheus program seeks to develop new generations of spacecraft nuclear-power and ion propulsion systems for applications to future planetary missions. The Science Definition Team for the first mission in the Prometheus series, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), has defined science objectives for in-situ orbital exploration of the icy Galilean moons (Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) and the Jovian magnetosphere along with remote observations of Jupiter's atmosphere and aurorae, the volcanic moon Io, and other elements of the Jovian system. Important to this forum is that JIMO power and propulsion systems will need to be designed to minimize magnetic, radio, neutral gas, and plasma backgrounds that might otherwise interfere with achievement of mission science objectives. Another potential Prometheus mission of high science interest would be an extended tour of primitive bodies in the solar system, including asteroids, Jupiter family comets, Centaurs, and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO). The final landed phase of this mission might include an active keplerian experiment for detectable (via downlink radio doppler shift) acceleration of a small kilometer-size Centaur or KBO object, likely the satellite of a larger object observable from Earth. This would have obvious application to testing of mitigation techniques for Earth impact hazards.

  20. High Temperature Planetary Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maran, Stephen P.

    Following up on our recent discovery that a very hot planetary in the Small Magellanic Cloud has an extraordinary underabundance of carbon, we propose to observe two similar hot planetaries in the Clouds with IUE as part of an optical/UV investigation. The objectives are (1) to test the suggestion that high nebular electron temperatures can result from a strong deficiency of carbon that deprives the nebula of an important cooling channel; and (2) to determine accurate chemical abundances to constrain limits on the efficiency of "hot bottom burning" in massive progenitors of planetary nebulae. The targets are SMC 25 (Te = 34,000 K) and LMC 88 (= 25,500 K). These UV observations of targets not previously observed with IUE will be combined, for analysis, with visible wavelength spectra of both targets from the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the 2-3-m Siding Spring reflector. The objects will also be compared in the analysis stage with previous IUE observations (and consequent modeling) of type I planetaries in the Clouds. Model nebulae will be calculated, and physical parameters of the central stars will be inferred.

  1. Channel coding and data compression system considerations for efficient communication of planetary imaging data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rice, R. F.

    1974-01-01

    End-to-end system considerations involving channel coding and data compression which could drastically improve the efficiency in communicating pictorial information from future planetary spacecraft are presented.

  2. Non-planetary Science from Planetary Missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Elvis, M.; Rabe, K.; Daniels, K.

    2015-12-01

    Planetary science is naturally focussed on the issues of the origin and history of solar systems, especially our own. The implications of an early turbulent history of our solar system reach into many areas including the origin of Earth's oceans, of ores in the Earth's crust and possibly the seeding of life. There are however other areas of science that stand to be developed greatly by planetary missions, primarily to small solar system bodies. The physics of granular materials has been well-studied in Earth's gravity, but lacks a general theory. Because of the compacting effects of gravity, some experiments desired for testing these theories remain impossible on Earth. Studying the behavior of a micro-gravity rubble pile -- such as many asteroids are believed to be -- could provide a new route towards exploring general principles of granular physics. These same studies would also prove valuable for planning missions to sample these same bodies, as techniques for anchoring and deep sampling are difficult to plan in the absence of such knowledge. In materials physics, first-principles total-energy calculations for compounds of a given stoichiometry have identified metastable, or even stable, structures distinct from known structures obtained by synthesis under laboratory conditions. The conditions in the proto-planetary nebula, in the slowly cooling cores of planetesimals, and in the high speed collisions of planetesimals and their derivatives, are all conditions that cannot be achieved in the laboratory. Large samples from comets and asteroids offer the chance to find crystals with these as-yet unobserved structures as well as more exotic materials. Some of these could have unusual properties important for materials science. Meteorites give us a glimpse of these exotic materials, several dozen of which are known that are unique to meteorites. But samples retrieved directly from small bodies in space will not have been affected by atmospheric entry, warmth or

  3. Exploration Planetary Surface Structural Systems: Design Requirements and Compliance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dorsey, John T.

    2011-01-01

    The Lunar Surface Systems Project developed system concepts that would be necessary to establish and maintain a permanent human presence on the Lunar surface. A variety of specific system implementations were generated as a part of the scenarios, some level of system definition was completed, and masses estimated for each system. Because the architecture studies generally spawned a large number of system concepts and the studies were executed in a short amount of time, the resulting system definitions had very low design fidelity. This paper describes the development sequence required to field a particular structural system: 1) Define Requirements, 2) Develop the Design and 3) Demonstrate Compliance of the Design to all Requirements. This paper also outlines and describes in detail the information and data that are required to establish structural design requirements and outlines the information that would comprise a planetary surface system Structures Requirements document.

  4. Journal Bearing Analysis Suite Released for Planetary Gear System Evaluation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brewe, David E.; Clark, David A.

    2005-01-01

    Planetary gear systems are an efficient means of achieving high reduction ratios with minimum space and weight. They are used in helicopter, aerospace, automobile, and many industrial applications. High-speed planetary gear systems will have significant dynamic loading and high heat generation. Hence, they need jet lubrication and associated cooling systems. For units operating in critical applications that necessitate high reliability and long life, that have very large torque loading, and that have downtime costs that are significantly greater than the initial cost, hydrodynamic journal bearings are a must. Computational and analytical tools are needed for sufficiently accurate modeling to facilitate optimal design of these systems. Sufficient physics is needed in the model to facilitate parametric studies of design conditions that enable optimal designs. The first transient journal bearing code to implement the Jacobsson-Floberg-Olsson boundary conditions, using a mass-conserving algorithm devised by Professor Emeritus Harold Elrod of Columbia University, was written by David E. Brewe of the U.S. Army at the NASA Lewis Research Center1 in 1983. Since then, new features and improved modifications have been built into the code by several contributors supported through Army and NASA funding via cooperative agreements with the University of Toledo (Professor Ted Keith, Jr., and Dr. Desikakary Vijayaraghavan) and National Research Council Programs (Dr. Vijayaraghavan). All this was conducted with the close consultation of Professor Elrod and the project management of David Brewe.

  5. Theoretical and observational planetary physics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Caldwell, J.

    1986-01-01

    This program supports NASA's deep space exploration missions, particularly those to the outer Solar System, and also NASA's Earth-orbital astronomy missions, using ground-based observations, primarily with the NASA IRTF at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and also with such instruments as the Kitt Peak 4 meter Mayall telescope and the NRAO VLA facility in Socorro, New Mexico. An important component of the program is the physical interpretation of the observations. There were two major scientific discoveries resulting from 8 micrometer observations of Jupiter. The first is that at that wavelength there are two spots, one near each magnetic pole, which are typically the brightest and therefore warmest places on the planet. The effect is clearly due to precipitating high energy magnetospheric particles. A second ground-based discovery is that in 1985, Jupiter exhibited low latitude (+ or - 18 deg.) stratospheric wave structure.

  6. Planetary nebula progenitors that swallow binary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soker, Noam

    2016-01-01

    I propose that some irregular messy planetary nebulae (PNe) owe their morphologies to triple-stellar evolution where tight binary systems evolve inside and/or on the outskirts of the envelope of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. In some cases, the tight binary system can survive, in others, it is destroyed. The tight binary system might break up with one star leaving the system. In an alternative evolution, one of the stars of the broken-up tight binary system falls towards the AGB envelope with low specific angular momentum, and drowns in the envelope. In a different type of destruction process, the drag inside the AGB envelope causes the tight binary system to merge. This releases gravitational energy within the AGB envelope, leading to a very asymmetrical envelope ejection, with an irregular and messy PN as a descendant. The evolution of the triple-stellar system can be in a full common envelope evolution or in a grazing envelope evolution. Both before and after destruction (if destruction takes place), the system might launch pairs of opposite jets. One pronounced signature of triple-stellar evolution might be a large departure from axisymmetrical morphology of the descendant PN. I estimate that about one in eight non-spherical PNe is shaped by one of these triple-stellar evolutionary routes.

  7. Planetary period modulations of Saturn's magnetotail current sheet during northern spring: Observations and modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cowley, S. W. H.; Provan, G.

    2017-06-01

    We study Cassini magnetic field observations at Saturn on a sequence of passes through the near-equatorial magnetotail during 2015, focusing on dual modulation of the plasma/current sheet associated with northern and southern planetary period oscillations (PPOs). Previous study of inner magnetosphere PPOs during this northern spring interval showed that the southern system amplitude was generally half that of the northern during the first part of the year to late August, after which the southern amplitude weakened to less than one-fifth that of the northern. We examine four sequential tail passes in the earlier interval, during which prominent PPO-related tail field modulations were observed, with relative (beat) phases of the two PPO systems being near in phase, antiphase, and two opposite near-quadrature conditions. We find that the radial field displayed opposite "sawtooth" asymmetry modulations under opposite near-quadrature conditions, related to previous findings under equinoctial conditions with near-equal northern and southern PPO amplitudes, while modulations were near symmetric for in-phase and antiphase conditions, but with larger radial field modulations for in-phase and larger colatitudinal field modulations for antiphase. A simple physical mathematical model of dual modulation is developed, which provides reasonable correspondence with these data using one set of current sheet parameters while varying only the relative PPO phases, thus demonstrating that dual modulation can be discerned and modeled even when the northern and southern amplitudes differ by a factor of 2. No such effects were consistently discerned during the later interval when the amplitude ratio was >5.

  8. The importance of dunes on a variety of planetary surfaces

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Titus, Timothy N.; Zimbelman, James R.; Radebaugh, Jani

    2015-01-01

    Scientists observe aeolian bed forms, or dune-like structures, throughout the solar system in a range of locations, from bodies with only transient atmospheres, such as comets, to places with thick atmospheres, such as Venus and the Earth’s ocean floor. Determining the source of sand and the different dune formations that result are thus important to understanding solar system and planetary evolution.

  9. Characterization of the HD 17156 planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barbieri, M.; Alonso, R.; Desidera, S.; Sozzetti, A.; Martinez Fiorenzano, A. F.; Almenara, J. M.; Cecconi, M.; Claudi, R. U.; Charbonneau, D.; Endl, M.; Granata, V.; Gratton, R.; Laughlin, G.; Loeillet, B.; EXOPLANET Amateur Consortium

    2009-08-01

    Aims: We present data to improve the known parameters of the HD 17156 system (peculiar due to the eccentricity and long orbital period of its transiting planet) and constrain the presence of stellar companions. Methods: Photometric data were acquired for 4 transits, and high precision radial velocity measurements were simultaneously acquired with the SARG spectrograph at TNG for one transit. The template spectra of HD 17156 was used to derive effective temperature, gravity, and metallicity. A fit of the photometric and spectroscopic data was performed to measure the stellar and planetary radii, and the spin-orbit alignment. Planet orbital elements and ephemeris were derived from the fit. Near infrared adaptive optic images were acquired with the AdOpt module of TNG. Results: We found that the star has a radius of RS = 1.44±0.03 R_⊙ and the planet RP = 1.02±0.08 RJ. The transit ephemeris is Tc = 2 454 756.73134 ± 0.00020 + N \\cdot 21.21663 ± 0.00045 BJD. Analysis of the Rossiter-Mclaughlin effect shows that the system is spin orbit aligned with an angle β = 4.8°±5.3°. The analysis of high resolution images did not reveal any stellar companion with a projected separation between of 150 and 1 000 AU from HD 17156. Based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Fundacion Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. Based on observations collected at Asiago observatory, at Observatoire de Haute Provence and with Telast at IAC. Photometry and radial velocity data are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/503/601

  10. Galactic planetary science.

    PubMed

    Tinetti, Giovanna

    2014-04-28

    Planetary science beyond the boundaries of our Solar System is today in its infancy. Until a couple of decades ago, the detailed investigation of the planetary properties was restricted to objects orbiting inside the Kuiper Belt. Today, we cannot ignore that the number of known planets has increased by two orders of magnitude nor that these planets resemble anything but the objects present in our own Solar System. Whether this fact is the result of a selection bias induced by the kind of techniques used to discover new planets--mainly radial velocity and transit--or simply the proof that the Solar System is a rarity in the Milky Way, we do not know yet. What is clear, though, is that the Solar System has failed to be the paradigm not only in our Galaxy but even 'just' in the solar neighbourhood. This finding, although unsettling, forces us to reconsider our knowledge of planets under a different light and perhaps question a few of the theoretical pillars on which we base our current 'understanding'. The next decade will be critical to advance in what we should perhaps call Galactic planetary science. In this paper, I review highlights and pitfalls of our current knowledge of this topic and elaborate on how this knowledge might arguably evolve in the next decade. More critically, I identify what should be the mandatory scientific and technical steps to be taken in this fascinating journey of remote exploration of planets in our Galaxy.

  11. Crossing the Boundaries in Planetary Atmospheres - From Earth to Exoplanets

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Simon-Miller, Amy A.; Genio, Anthony Del

    2013-01-01

    The past decade has been an especially exciting time to study atmospheres, with a renaissance in fundamental studies of Earths general circulation and hydrological cycle, stimulated by questions about past climates and the urgency of projecting the future impacts of humankinds activities. Long-term spacecraft and Earth-based observation of solar system planets have now reinvigorated the study of comparative planetary climatology. The explosion in discoveries of planets outside our solar system has made atmospheric science integral to understanding the diversity of our solar system and the potential habitability of planets outside it. Thus, the AGU Chapman Conference Crossing the Boundaries in Planetary Atmospheres From Earth to Exoplanets, held in Annapolis, MD from June 24-27, 2013 gathered Earth, solar system, and exoplanet scientists to share experiences, insights, and challenges from their individual disciplines, and discuss areas in which thinking broadly might enhance our fundamental understanding of how atmospheres work.

  12. Confirmation and characterization of young planetary companions hidden in the HST NICMOS archive

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pueyo, Laurent

    2013-10-01

    We propose to conduct WFC3 high contrast observations of six faint planetary candidates orbiting young {1 to 100 Myrs} stars identified in archival HST NICMOS coronagraphic data as part of our team's program AR-12652. Such rare objects are of the utmost importance to comparative exo-planetology as their physical properties reflect the initial conditions of still poorly constrained planetary formation mechanisms. Moreover directly imaged systems are precious artifacts in the expanding exo-planetary treasure trove as they are readily available for spectroscopic characterization. Our statistical analysis, which combines population synthesis models and empirical inspections of the entire NICMOS field of view for all sources observed in coronaraphic mode, almost guarantees that one of these six faint candidates is associated with its putative host star. We will conduct our observation in four near infrared filter, F125W, F160W to establish the baseline luminosity of our candidates and in F127M and F139M in order to probe the depth their water absorption features, characteristic of substellar /exo-planetary like atmospheres. Because of the youth of our targets, this program, which only requires a modest 12 HST orbits, will almost certainly identify and image a young or adolescent exo-planet.

  13. Comparative Climates of the Trappist-1 Planetary System: Results from a Simple Climate-vegetation Model

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Alberti, Tommaso; Carbone, Vincenzo; Lepreti, Fabio

    The recent discovery of the planetary system hosted by the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 could open new paths for investigations of the planetary climates of Earth-sized exoplanets, their atmospheres, and their possible habitability. In this paper, we use a simple climate-vegetation energy-balance model to study the climate of the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets and the climate dependence on various factors: the global albedo, the fraction of vegetation that could cover their surfaces, and the different greenhouse conditions. The model allows us to investigate whether liquid water could be maintained on the planetary surfaces (i.e., by defining a “surface water zone (SWZ)”)more » in different planetary conditions, with or without the presence of a greenhouse effect. It is shown that planet TRAPPIST-1d seems to be the most stable from an Earth-like perspective, since it resides in the SWZ for a wide range of reasonable values of the model parameters. Moreover, according to the model, outer planets (f, g, and h) cannot host liquid water on their surfaces, even with Earth-like conditions, entering a snowball state. Although very simple, the model allows us to extract the main features of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary climates.« less

  14. Advances and issues from the simulation of planetary magnetospheres with recent supercomputer systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fukazawa, K.; Walker, R. J.; Kimura, T.; Tsuchiya, F.; Murakami, G.; Kita, H.; Tao, C.; Murata, K. T.

    2016-12-01

    Planetary magnetospheres are very large, while phenomena within them occur on meso- and micro-scales. These scales range from 10s of planetary radii to kilometers. To understand dynamics in these multi-scale systems, numerical simulations have been performed by using the supercomputer systems. We have studied the magnetospheres of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn by using 3-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations for a long time, however, we have not obtained the phenomena near the limits of the MHD approximation. In particular, we have not studied meso-scale phenomena that can be addressed by using MHD.Recently we performed our MHD simulation of Earth's magnetosphere by using the K-computer which is the first 10PFlops supercomputer and obtained multi-scale flow vorticity for the both northward and southward IMF. Furthermore, we have access to supercomputer systems which have Xeon, SPARC64, and vector-type CPUs and can compare simulation results between the different systems. Finally, we have compared the results of our parameter survey of the magnetosphere with observations from the HISAKI spacecraft.We have encountered a number of difficulties effectively using the latest supercomputer systems. First the size of simulation output increases greatly. Now a simulation group produces over 1PB of output. Storage and analysis of this much data is difficult. The traditional way to analyze simulation results is to move the results to the investigator's home computer. This takes over three months using an end-to-end 10Gbps network. In reality, there are problems at some nodes such as firewalls that can increase the transfer time to over one year. Another issue is post-processing. It is hard to treat a few TB of simulation output due to the memory limitations of a post-processing computer. To overcome these issues, we have developed and introduced the parallel network storage, the highly efficient network protocol and the CUI based visualization tools.In this study, we

  15. Ultraviolet observations of close-binary and pulsating nuclei of planetary nebulae; Winds and shells around low-mass supergiants; The close-binary nucleus of the planetary nebula HFG-1; A search for binary nuclei of planetary nebulae; UV monitoring of irregularly variable planetary nuclei; and The pulsating nucleus of the planetary nebula Lo 4

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bond, Howard E.

    1992-01-01

    A brief summary of the research highlights is presented. The topics covered include the following: binary nuclei of planetary nebulae; other variable planetary nuclei; low-mass supergiants; and other IUE-related research.

  16. Equations of State: Gateway to Planetary Origin and Evolution (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Melosh, J.

    2013-12-01

    Research over the past decades has shown that collisions between solid bodies govern many crucial phases of planetary origin and evolution. The accretion of the terrestrial planets was punctuated by planetary-scale impacts that generated deep magma oceans, ejected primary atmospheres and probably created the moons of Earth and Pluto. Several extrasolar planetary systems are filled with silicate vapor and condensed 'tektites', probably attesting to recent giant collisions. Even now, long after the solar system settled down from its violent birth, a large asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs, while other impacts may have played a role in the origin of life on Earth and perhaps Mars, while maintaining a steady exchange of small meteorites between the terrestrial planets and our moon. Most of these events are beyond the scale at which experiments are possible, so that our main research tool is computer simulation, constrained by the laws of physics and the behavior of materials during high-speed impact. Typical solar system impact velocities range from a few km/s in the outer solar system to 10s of km/s in the inner system. Extrasolar planetary systems expand that range to 100s of km/sec typical of the tightly clustered planetary systems now observed. Although computer codes themselves are currently reaching a high degree of sophistication, we still rely on experimental studies to determine the Equations of State (EoS) of materials critical for the correct simulation of impact processes. The recent expansion of the range of pressures available for study, from a few 100 GPa accessible with light gas guns up to a few TPa from current high energy accelerators now opens experimental access to the full velocity range of interest in our solar system. The results are a surprise: several groups in both the USA and Japan have found that silicates and even iron melt and vaporize much more easily in an impact than previously anticipated. The importance of these findings is

  17. Advanced planetary analyses. [for planetary mission planning

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1974-01-01

    The results are summarized of research accomplished during this period concerning planetary mission planning are summarized. The tasks reported include the cost estimations research, planetary missions handbook, and advanced planning activities.

  18. From Planetary Intelligence to Planetary Wisdom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moser, S. C.

    2016-12-01

    "Planetary intelligence" - when understood as an input into the processes of "managing" Earth - hints at an instrumental understanding of scientific information. At minimum it is a call for useful data of political (and even military) value; at best it speaks to an ability to collect, integrate and apply such information. In this sense, 21st century society has more "intelligence" than any generation of humans before, begging the question whether just more or better "planetary intelligence" will do anything at all to move us off the path of planetary destruction (i.e., beyond planetary boundaries) that it has been on for decades if not centuries. Social scientists have argued that there are at least four shortcomings in this way of thinking that - if addressed - could open up 1) what is being researched; 2) what is considered socially robust knowledge; 3) how science interacts with policy-makers and other "planet managers"; and 4) what is being done in practice with the "intelligence" given to those positioned at the levers of change. To the extent "planetary management" continues to be approached from a scientistic paradigm alone, there is little hope that Earth's future will remain in a safe operating space in this or coming centuries.

  19. Characterizing K2 Candidate Planetary Systems Orbiting Low-mass Stars. II. Planetary Systems Observed During Campaigns 1–7

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dressing, Courtney D.; Vanderburg, Andrew; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Knutson, Heather A.; Newton, Elisabeth R.; Ciardi, David R.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Gonzales, Erica J.; Howard, Andrew W.; Isaacson, Howard; Livingston, John; Petigura, Erik A.; Sinukoff, Evan; Everett, Mark; Horch, Elliott; Howell, Steve B.

    2017-11-01

    We recently used near-infrared spectroscopy to improve the characterization of 76 low-mass stars around which K2 had detected 79 candidate transiting planets. 29 of these worlds were new discoveries that had not previously been published. We calculate the false positive probabilities that the transit-like signals are actually caused by non-planetary astrophysical phenomena and reject five new transit-like events and three previously reported events as false positives. We also statistically validate 17 planets (7 of which were previously unpublished), confirm the earlier validation of 22 planets, and announce 17 newly discovered planet candidates. Revising the properties of the associated planet candidates based on the updated host star characteristics and refitting the transit photometry, we find that our sample contains 21 planets or planet candidates with radii smaller than 1.25 R ⊕, 18 super-Earths (1.25–2 R ⊕), 21 small Neptunes (2–4 R ⊕), three large Neptunes (4–6 R ⊕), and eight giant planets (>6 R ⊕). Most of these planets are highly irradiated, but EPIC 206209135.04 (K2-72e, {1.29}-0.13+0.14 {R}\\oplus ), EPIC 211988320.01 ({R}p={2.86}-0.15+0.16 {R}\\oplus ), and EPIC 212690867.01 ({2.20}-0.18+0.19 {R}\\oplus ) orbit within optimistic habitable zone boundaries set by the “recent Venus” inner limit and the “early Mars” outer limit. In total, our planet sample includes eight moderately irradiated 1.5–3 R ⊕ planet candidates (F p ≲ 20 F ⊕) orbiting brighter stars (Ks < 11) that are well-suited for atmospheric investigations with the Hubble, Spitzer, and/or James Webb Space Telescopes. Five validated planets orbit relatively bright stars (Kp < 12.5) and are expected to yield radial velocity semi-amplitudes of at least 2 m s‑1. Accordingly, they are possible targets for radial velocity mass measurement with current facilities or the upcoming generation of red optical and near-infrared high-precision RV spectrographs.

  20. The Source of Planetary Period Oscillations in Saturn's Magnetosphere

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khurana, Krishan K.; Mitchell, Jonathan L.; Mueller, Ingo C. F.

    2017-04-01

    In this presentation, we resolve a three-decades old mystery of how Saturn is able to modulate its kilometric wave radiation and many field and plasma parameters at the planetary rotation period even though its magnetic field is extremely axisymmetric. Such waves emanating from the auroral regions of planets lacking solid surfaces have been used as clocks to measure the lengths of their days, because asymmetric internal magnetic fields spin-modulate wave amplitudes. A review by Carbary and Mitchell (2013, Periodicities in Saturn's magnetosphere, Reviews of Geophysics, 51, 1-30) on the topic summarized findings from over 200 research articles, on what the phenomena is, how it is manifested in a host of magnetospheric and auroral parameters; examined several proposed models and pointed out their shortcomings. The topic has now been explored in several topical international workshops, but the problem has remained unsolved so far. By quantitatively modeling the amplitudes and phases of these oscillations in the magnetic field observed by the Cassini spacecraft, we have now uncovered the generation mechanism responsible for these oscillations. We show that the observed oscillations are the manifestations of two global convectional conveyor belts excited in Saturn's upper atmosphere by auroral heating below its northern and southern auroral belts. We demonstrate that a feedback process develops in Saturn system such that the magnetosphere expends energy to drive convection in Saturn's upper stratosphere but gains back an amplified share in the form of angular momentum that it uses to enforce corotation in the magnetosphere and power its aurorae and radio waves. In essence, we have uncovered a new mechanism (convection assisted loss of angular momentum in an atmosphere) by which gaseous planets lose their angular momentum to their magnetospheres and outflowing plasma at rates far above previous predictions. We next show how the m = 1 convection system in the upper

  1. Planetary X-ray studies: past, present and future

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Branduardi-Raymont, Graziella

    2016-07-01

    Our solar system is a fascinating physics laboratory and X-ray observations are now firmly established as a powerful diagnostic tool of the multiple processes taking place in it. The science that X-rays reveal encompasses solar, space plasma and planetary physics, and the response of bodies in the solar system to the impact of the Sun's activity. This talk will review what we know from past observations and what we expect to learn in the short, medium and long term. Observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton have demonstrated that the origin of Jupiter's bright soft X-ray aurorae lies in the Charge eXchange (CX) process, likely to involve the interaction with atmospheric neutrals of local magnetospheric ions, as well as those carried in the solar wind. At higher energies electron bremsstrahlung is thought to be the X-ray emitting mechanism, while the whole planetary disk acts as a mirror for the solar X-ray flux via Thomson and fluorescent scattering. This 'X-ray mirror' phenomenon is all that is observed from Saturn's disk, which otherwise lacks X-ray auroral features. The Earth's X-ray aurora is bright and variable and mostly due to electron bremsstrahlung and line emission from atmospheric species. Un-magnetised planets, Venus and Mars, do not show X-ray aurorae but display the interesting combination of mirroring the solar X-ray flux and producing X-rays by Solar Wind Charge eXchange (SWCX) in their exospheres. These processes respond to different solar stimulation (photons and solar wind plasma respectively) hence their relative contributions are seen to vary according to the Sun's output. Present and future of planetary X-ray studies are very bright. We are preparing for the arrival of the Juno mission at Jupiter this summer and for coordinated observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton on the approach and later during Juno's orbital phase. These will allow direct correlation of the local plasma conditions with the X-ray emissions and the establishment of the

  2. First Prototype of a Web Map Interface for ESA's Planetary Science Archive (PSA)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manaud, N.; Gonzalez, J.

    2014-04-01

    We present a first prototype of a Web Map Interface that will serve as a proof of concept and design for ESA's future fully web-based Planetary Science Archive (PSA) User Interface. The PSA is ESA's planetary science archiving authority and central repository for all scientific and engineering data returned by ESA's Solar System missions [1]. All data are compliant with NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) Standards and are accessible through several interfaces [2]: in addition to serving all public data via FTP and the Planetary Data Access Protocol (PDAP), a Java-based User Interface provides advanced search, preview, download, notification and delivery-basket functionality. It allows the user to query and visualise instrument observations footprints using a map-based interface (currently only available for Mars Express HRSC and OMEGA instruments). During the last decade, the planetary mapping science community has increasingly been adopting Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and standards, originally developed for and used in Earth science. There is an ongoing effort to produce and share cartographic products through Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Services, or as standalone data sets, so that they can be readily used in existing GIS applications [3,4,5]. Previous studies conducted at ESAC [6,7] have helped identify the needs of Planetary GIS users, and define key areas of improvement for the future Web PSA User Interface. Its web map interface shall will provide access to the full geospatial content of the PSA, including (1) observation geometry footprints of all remote sensing instruments, and (2) all georeferenced cartographic products, such as HRSC map-projected data or OMEGA global maps from Mars Express. It shall aim to provide a rich user experience for search and visualisation of this content using modern and interactive web mapping technology. A comprehensive set of built-in context maps from external sources, such as MOLA topography, TES

  3. Scientific Tools and Techniques: An Innovative Introduction to Planetary Science / Astronomy for 9th Grade Students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albin, Edward F.

    2014-11-01

    Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, GA (USA) offers instruction in planetary science and astronomy to gifted 9th grade students within a program called "Scientific Tools and Techniques" (STT). Although STT provides a semester long overview of all sciences, the planetary science / astronomy section is innovative since students have access to instruction in the Center's Zeiss planetarium and observatory, which includes a 0.9 m cassegrain telescope. The curriculum includes charting the positions of planets in planetarium the sky; telescopic observations of the Moon and planets; hands-on access to meteorites and tektites; and an introduction to planetary spectroscopy utilizing LPI furnished ALTA reflectance spectrometers. In addition, students have the opportunity to watch several full dome planetary themed planetarium presentations, including "Back to the Moon for Good" and "Ring World: Cassini at Saturn." An overview of NASA's planetary exploration efforts is also considered, with special emphasis on the new Orion / Space Launch System for human exploration of the solar system. A primary goal of our STT program is to not only engage but encourage students to pursue careers in the field of science, with the hope of inspiring future scientists / leaders in the field of planetary science.

  4. The great escape - III. Placing post-main-sequence evolution of planetary and binary systems in a Galactic context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Veras, Dimitri; Evans, N. Wyn; Wyatt, Mark C.; Tout, Christopher A.

    2014-01-01

    Our improving understanding of the life cycle of planetary systems prompts investigations of the role of the Galenvironment before, during and after asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stellar evolution. Here, we investigate the interplay between stellar mass-loss, Galactic tidal perturbations and stellar flybys for evolving stars which host one planet, smaller body or stellar binary companion and reside in the Milky Way's bulge or disc. We find that the potential evolutionary pathways from a main sequence (MS) to a white dwarf (WD) planetary system are a strong function of Galactocentric distance only with respect to the prevalence of stellar flybys. Planetary ejection and collision with the parent star should be more common towards the bulge. At a given location anywhere in the Galaxy, if the mass-loss is adiabatic, then the secondary is likely to avoid close flybys during AGB evolution, and cannot eventually escape the resulting WD because of Galactic tides alone. Partly because AGB mass-loss will shrink a planetary system's Hill ellipsoid axes by about 20 to 40 per cent, Oort clouds orbiting WDs are likely to be more depleted and dynamically excited than on the MS.

  5. Lessons learned from planetary science archiving

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zender, J.; Grayzeck, E.

    2006-01-01

    The need for scientific archiving of past, current, and future planetary scientific missions, laboratory data, and modeling efforts is indisputable. To quote from a message by G. Santayama carved over the entrance of the US Archive in Washington DC “Those who can not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” The design, implementation, maintenance, and validation of planetary science archives are however disputed by the involved parties. The inclusion of the archives into the scientific heritage is problematic. For example, there is the imbalance between space agency requirements and institutional and national interests. The disparity of long-term archive requirements and immediate data analysis requests are significant. The discrepancy between the space missions archive budget and the effort required to design and build the data archive is large. An imbalance exists between new instrument development and existing, well-proven archive standards. The authors present their view on the problems and risk areas in the archiving concepts based on their experience acquired within NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) and ESA’s Planetary Science Archive (PSA). Individual risks and potential problem areas are discussed based on a model derived from a system analysis done upfront. The major risk for a planetary mission science archive is seen in the combination of minimal involvement by Mission Scientists and inadequate funding. The authors outline how the risks can be reduced. The paper ends with the authors view on future planetary archive implementations including the archive interoperability aspect.

  6. Disintegrating Planetary Bodies Around a White Dwarf

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2016-02-01

    Several months ago, the discovery of WD 1145+017 was announced. This white dwarf appears to be orbited by planetary bodies that are actively disintegrating due to the strong gravitational pull of their host. A follow-up study now reveals that this system has dramatically evolved since its discovery.Signs of DisruptionPotential planetary bodies orbiting a white dwarf would be exposed to a particular risk: if their orbits were perturbed and they passed inside the white dwarfs tidal radius, they would be torn apart. Their material could then form a debris disk around the white dwarf and eventually be accreted.Interestingly, we have two pieces of evidence that this actually happens:Weve observed warm, dusty debris disks around ~4% of white dwarfs, andThe atmospheres of ~25-50% of white dwarfs are polluted by heavy elements that have likely accreted recently.But in spite of this indirect evidence of planet disintegration, wed never observed planetary bodies actively being disrupted around white dwarfs until recently.Unusual TransitsIn April 2015, observations by Keplers K2 mission revealed a strange transit signal around WD 1145+017, a white dwarf 570 light-years from Earth that has both a dusty debris disk and a polluted atmosphere. This signal was interpreted as the transit of at least one, and possibly several, disintegrating planetesimals.In a recent follow-up, a team of scientists led by Boris Gnsicke (University of Warwick) obtained high-speed photometry of WD 1145+017 using the ULTRASPEC camera on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope. These observations were taken in November and December of 2015 roughly seven months after the initial photometric observations of the system. They reveal that dramatic changes have occurred in this short time.Rapid EvolutionA sample light curve from TNT/ULTRASPEC, obtained in December 2015 over 3.9 hours. Many varied transits are evident (click for a better view!). Transits labeled in color appear across multiple nights. [Gnsicke et al

  7. Reports of planetary geology program, 1976 - 1977. [abstracts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Arvidson, R. (Compiler); Wahmann, R. (Compiler); Howard, J. H., III

    1977-01-01

    One hundred seventeen investigations undertaken in the NASA Planetary Geology Program in 1976-1977 are reported in abstract form. Topics discussed include solar system formation; planetary interiors; planetary evolution; asteroids, comets and moons; cratering; volcanic, eolian, fluvial and mass wasting processes; volatiles and the Martian regolith; mapping; and instrument development and techniques. An author index is provided.

  8. Unstable low-mass planetary systems as drivers of white dwarf pollution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mustill, Alexander J.; Villaver, Eva; Veras, Dimitri; Gänsicke, Boris T.; Bonsor, Amy

    2018-05-01

    At least 25 {per cent} of white dwarfs show atmospheric pollution by metals, sometimes accompanied by detectable circumstellar dust/gas discs or (in the case of WD 1145+017) transiting disintegrating asteroids. Delivery of planetesimals to the white dwarf by orbiting planets is a leading candidate to explain these phenomena. Here, we study systems of planets and planetesimals undergoing planet-planet scattering triggered by the star's post-main-sequence mass loss, and test whether this can maintain high rates of delivery over the several Gyr that they are observed. We find that low-mass planets (Earth to Neptune mass) are efficient deliverers of material and can maintain the delivery for Gyr. Unstable low-mass planetary systems reproduce the observed delayed onset of significant accretion, as well as the slow decay in accretion rates at late times. Higher-mass planets are less efficient, and the delivery only lasts a relatively brief time before the planetesimal populations are cleared. The orbital inclinations of bodies as they cross the white dwarf's Roche limit are roughly isotropic, implying that significant collisional interactions of asteroids, debris streams and discs can be expected. If planet-planet scattering is indeed responsible for the pollution of white dwarfs, many such objects, and their main-sequence progenitors, can be expected to host (currently undetectable) super-Earth planets on orbits of several au and beyond.

  9. Evolution of Planetary Ice-Ocean Systems: Effects of Salinity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allu Peddinti, D.; McNamara, A. K.

    2015-12-01

    Planetary oceanography is enjoying renewed attention thanks to not only the detection of several exoplanetary ocean worlds but also due to the expanding family of ocean worlds within our own star system. Our solar system is now believed to host about nine ocean worlds including Earth, some dwarf planets and few moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Amongst them, Europa, like Earth is thought to have an ice Ih-liquid water system. However, the thickness of the Europan ice-ocean system is much larger than that of the Earth. The evolution of this system would determine the individual thicknesses of the ice shell and the ocean. In turn, these thicknesses can alter the course of evolution of the system. In a pure H2O system, the thickness of the ice shell would govern if heat loss occurs entirely by conduction or if the shell begins to convect as it attains a threshold thickness. This switch between conduction-convection regimes could determine the longevity of the subsurface ocean and hence define the astrobiological potential of the planetary body at any given time. In reality, however, the system is not pure water ice. The detected induced magnetic field infers a saline ocean layer. Salts are expected to act as an anti-freeze allowing a subsurface ocean to persist over long periods but the amount of salts would determine the extent of that effect. In our current study, we use geodynamic models to examine the effect of salinity on the evolution of ice-ocean system. An initial ocean with different salinities is allowed to evolve. The effect of salinity on thickness of the two layers at any time is examined. We also track how salinity controls the switch between conductive-convective modes. The study shows that for a given time period, larger salinities can maintain a thick vigorously convecting ocean while the smaller salinities behave similar to a pure H2O system leading to a thick convecting ice-shell. A range of salinities identified can potentially predict the current state

  10. Planetary/DOD entry technology flight experiments. Volume 2: Planetary entry flight experiments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Christensen, H. E.; Krieger, R. J.; Mcneilly, W. R.; Vetter, H. C.

    1976-01-01

    The technical feasibility of launching a high speed, earth entry vehicle from the space shuttle to advance technology for the exploration of the outer planets' atmospheres was established. Disciplines of thermodynamics, orbital mechanics, aerodynamics propulsion, structures, design, electronics and system integration focused on the goal of producing outer planet environments on a probe shaped vehicle during an earth entry. Major aspects of analysis and vehicle design studied include: planetary environments, earth entry environment capability, mission maneuvers, capabilities of shuttle upper stages, a comparison of earth entry planetary environments, experiment design and vehicle design.

  11. Precise Chemical Analyses of Planetary Surfaces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kring, David; Schweitzer, Jeffrey; Meyer, Charles; Trombka, Jacob; Freund, Friedemann; Economou, Thanasis; Yen, Albert; Kim, Soon Sam; Treiman, Allan H.; Blake, David; hide

    1996-01-01

    We identify the chemical elements and element ratios that should be analyzed to address many of the issues identified by the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX). We determined that most of these issues require two sensitive instruments to analyze the necessary complement of elements. In addition, it is useful in many cases to use one instrument to analyze the outermost planetary surface (e.g. to determine weathering effects), while a second is used to analyze a subsurface volume of material (e.g., to determine the composition of unaltered planetary surface material). This dual approach to chemical analyses will also facilitate the calibration of orbital and/or Earth-based spectral observations of the planetary body. We determined that in many cases the scientific issues defined by COMPLEX can only be fully addressed with combined packages of instruments that would supplement the chemical data with mineralogic or visual information.

  12. The SOAPS project - Spin-orbit alignment of planetary systems. Exoplanets' evolution histories in systems with different architectures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Faedi, F.; Gómez Maqueo Chew, Y.; Fossati, L.; Pollacco, D.; McQuillan, A.; Hebb, L.; Chaplin, W. J.; Aigrain, S.

    2013-04-01

    The wealth of information rendered by Kepler planets and planet candidates is indispensable for statistically significant studies of distinct planet populations, in both single and multiple systems. Empirical evidences suggest that Kepler's planet population shows different physical properties as compared to the bulk of known exoplanets. The SOAPS project, aims to shed light on Kepler's planets formation, their migration and architecture. By measuring v sini accurately for Kepler hosts with rotation periods measured from their high-precision light curves, we will assess the alignment of the planetary orbit with respect to the stellar spin axis. This degree of alignment traces the formation history and evolution of the planetary systems, and thus, allows to distinguish between different proposed migration theories. SOAPS will increase by a factor of 2 the number of spin-orbit alignment measurements pushing the parameters space down to the SuperEarth domain. Here we present our preliminary results.

  13. Enabling Planetary Geodesy With the Deep Space Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, R. S.; Asmar, S. W.; Armstrong, J. W.; Buccino, D.; Folkner, W. M.; Iess, L.; Konopliv, A. S.; Lazio, J.

    2015-12-01

    For five decades of planetary exploration, missions have carried out Radio Science experiments that led to numerous discoveries in planetary geodesy. The interior structures of many planets, large moons, asteroids and comet nuclei have been modeled based on their gravitational fields and dynamical parameters derived from precision Doppler and range measurements, often called radio metrics. Advanced instrumentation has resulted in the high level of data quality that enabled scientific breakthroughs. This instrumentation scheme, however, is distributed between elements on the spacecraft and others at the stations of the Deep Space Network (DSN), making the DSN a world-class science instrument. The design and performance of the DSN stations directly determines the quality of the science observables and radio link-based planetary geodesy observations are established by methodologies and capabilities of the DSN. In this paper, we summarize major recent discoveries in planetary geodesy at the rocky planets and the Moon, Saturnian and Jovian satellites, Phobos, and Vesta; experiments and analysis in progress at Ceres and Pluto; upcoming experiments at Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (InSight), and the long-term outlook for approved future missions with geodesy objectives. The DSN's role will be described along the technical advancements in DSN transmitters, receivers, atomic clocks, and other specialized instrumentation, such as the Advanced Water Vapor Radiometer, Advanced Ranging Instrument, as well as relevant mechanical and electrical components. Advanced techniques for calibrations of known noise sources and Earth's troposphere, ionosphere, and interplanetary plasma are also presented. A typical error budget will be presented to aid future investigations in carrying out trade-off studies in the end-to-end system performance.

  14. Process engineering with planetary ball mills.

    PubMed

    Burmeister, Christine Friederike; Kwade, Arno

    2013-09-21

    Planetary ball mills are well known and used for particle size reduction on laboratory and pilot scales for decades while during the last few years the application of planetary ball mills has extended to mechanochemical approaches. Processes inside planetary ball mills are complex and strongly depend on the processed material and synthesis and, thus, the optimum milling conditions have to be assessed for each individual system. The present review focuses on the insight into several parameters like properties of grinding balls, the filling ratio or revolution speed. It gives examples of the aspects of grinding and illustrates some general guidelines to follow for modelling processes in planetary ball mills in terms of refinement, synthesis' yield and contamination from wear. The amount of energy transferred from the milling tools to the powder is significant and hardly measurable for processes in planetary ball mills. Thus numerical simulations based on a discrete-element-method are used to describe the energy transfer to give an adequate description of the process by correlation with experiments. The simulations illustrate the effect of the geometry of planetary ball mills on the energy entry. In addition the imaging of motion patterns inside a planetary ball mill from simulations and video recordings is shown.

  15. Galactic planetary science

    PubMed Central

    Tinetti, Giovanna

    2014-01-01

    Planetary science beyond the boundaries of our Solar System is today in its infancy. Until a couple of decades ago, the detailed investigation of the planetary properties was restricted to objects orbiting inside the Kuiper Belt. Today, we cannot ignore that the number of known planets has increased by two orders of magnitude nor that these planets resemble anything but the objects present in our own Solar System. Whether this fact is the result of a selection bias induced by the kind of techniques used to discover new planets—mainly radial velocity and transit—or simply the proof that the Solar System is a rarity in the Milky Way, we do not know yet. What is clear, though, is that the Solar System has failed to be the paradigm not only in our Galaxy but even ‘just’ in the solar neighbourhood. This finding, although unsettling, forces us to reconsider our knowledge of planets under a different light and perhaps question a few of the theoretical pillars on which we base our current ‘understanding’. The next decade will be critical to advance in what we should perhaps call Galactic planetary science. In this paper, I review highlights and pitfalls of our current knowledge of this topic and elaborate on how this knowledge might arguably evolve in the next decade. More critically, I identify what should be the mandatory scientific and technical steps to be taken in this fascinating journey of remote exploration of planets in our Galaxy. PMID:24664916

  16. PLANETARY MIGRATION AND ECCENTRICITY AND INCLINATION RESONANCES IN EXTRASOLAR PLANETARY SYSTEMS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lee, Man Hoi; Thommes, Edward W.

    2009-09-10

    The differential migration of two planets due to planet-disk interaction can result in capture into the 2:1 eccentricity-type mean-motion resonances. Both the sequence of 2:1 eccentricity resonances that the system is driven through by continued migration and the possibility of a subsequent capture into the 4:2 inclination resonances are sensitive to the migration rate within the range expected for type II migration due to planet-disk interaction. If the migration rate is fast, the resonant pair can evolve into a family of 2:1 eccentricity resonances different from those found by Lee. This new family has outer orbital eccentricity e {sub 2}more » {approx}> 0.4-0.5, asymmetric librations of both eccentricity resonance variables, and orbits that intersect if they are exactly coplanar. Although this family exists for an inner-to-outer planet mass ratio m {sub 1}/m {sub 2} {approx}> 0.2, it is possible to evolve into this family by fast migration only for m {sub 1}/m {sub 2} {approx}> 2. Thommes and Lissauer have found that a capture into the 4:2 inclination resonances is possible only for m {sub 1}/m {sub 2} {approx}< 2. We show that this capture is also possible for m {sub 1}/m {sub 2} {approx}> 2 if the migration rate is slightly slower than that adopted by Thommes and Lissauer. There is significant theoretical uncertainty in both the sign and the magnitude of the net effect of planet-disk interaction on the orbital eccentricity of a planet. If the eccentricity is damped on a timescale comparable to or shorter than the migration timescale, e {sub 2} may not be able to reach the values needed to enter either the new 2:1 eccentricity resonances or the 4:2 inclination resonances. Thus, if future observations of extrasolar planetary systems were to reveal certain combinations of mass ratio and resonant configuration, they would place a constraint on the strength of eccentricity damping during migration, as well as on the rate of the migration itself.« less

  17. Improved inflatable landing systems for low cost planetary landers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Northey, Dave; Morgan, Chris

    2006-10-01

    Inflatable landing systems have been traditionally perceived as a cost-effective solution to the problem of landing a spacecraft on a planetary surface. To date, the systems used have all employed the approach of surrounding the lander with non-vented airbags where the lander on impact bounces a number of times until the impact energy is dissipated. However, the reliability record of such systems is not at all good. This paper examines the problems involved in the use of non-vented airbags, and how these problems have been overcome by the use of vented airbags in terrestrial systems. Using a specific case study, it is shown that even the basic passive type of venting can give significant mass reductions. It is also shown that actively controlling the venting based on the landing scenario can further enhance the performance of vented airbags.

  18. Improved inflatable landing systems for low cost planetary landers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Northey, Dave; Morgan, Chris

    2003-11-01

    Inflatable landing systems have been traditionally perceived as a cost-effective solution to the problem of landing a spacecraft on a planetary surface. To date the systems used have all employed the approach of surrounding the lander with non-vented airbags where the lander bounces on impact a number of times until the impact energy is dissipated. However the reliability record of such systems is not at all good. This paper examines the problems involved in the use of non-vented airbags, and how these problems have been overcome by the use of vented airbags in terrestrial systems. Using a specific case study, it is shown that even the basic passive type of venting can give significant mass reductions. It is also shown that actively controlling the venting based on the landing scenario can further enhance the performance of vented airbags.

  19. The Anthropocene: A Planetary Perspective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anbar, A. D.; Hartnett, H. E.; York, A.; Selin, C.

    2016-12-01

    The Anthropocene is a new planetary epoch defined by the emergence of human activity as one of the most important driving forces on Earth, rivaling and also stressing the other systems that govern the planet's habitability. Public discussions and debates about the challenges of this epoch tend to be polarized. One extreme denies that humans have a planetary-scale impact, while the other wishes that this impact could disappear. The tension between these perspectives is often paralyzing. Effective adaptation and mitigation requires a new perspective that reframes the conversation. We propose a planetary perspective according to which this epoch is the result of a recent major innovation in the 4 ­billion ­year history of life on Earth: the emergence of an energy-intensive planetary civilization. The rate of human energy use is already within an order of magnitude of that of the rest of the biosphere, and rising rapidly, and so this innovation is second only to the evolution of photosynthesis in terms of energy capture and utilization by living systems. Such energy use has and will continue to affect Earth at planetary scale. This reality cannot be denied nor wished away. From this pragmatic perspective, the Anthropocene is not an unnatural event that can be reversed, as though humanity is separate from the Earth systems with which we are co-evolving. Rather, it is an evolutionary transition to be managed. This is the challenge of turning a carelessly altered planet into a carefully designed and managed world, maintaining a "safe operating space" for human civilization (Steffen et al., 2011). To do so, we need an integrated approach to Earth systems science that considers humans as a natural and integral component of Earth's systems. Insights drawn from the humanities and the social sciences must be integrated with the natural sciences in order to thrive in this new epoch. This type of integrated perspective is relatively uncontroversial on personal, local, and even

  20. Deploying Object Oriented Data Technology to the Planetary Data System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kelly, S.; Crichton, D.; Hughes, J. S.

    2003-01-01

    How do you provide more than 350 scientists and researchers access to data from every instrument in Odyssey when the data is curated across half a dozen institutions and in different formats and is too big to mail on a CD-ROM anymore? The Planetary Data System (PDS) faced this exact question. The solution was to use a metadata-based middleware framework developed by the Object Oriented Data Technology task at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using OODT, PDS provided - for the first time ever - data from all mission instruments through a single system immediately upon data delivery.

  1. Radioisotope Reduction Using Solar Power for Outer Planetary Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fincannon, James

    2008-01-01

    Radioisotope power systems have historically been (and still are) the power system of choice from a mass and size perspective for outer planetary missions. High demand for and limited availability of radioisotope fuel has made it necessary to investigate alternatives to this option. Low mass, high efficiency solar power systems have the potential for use at low outer planetary temperatures and illumination levels. This paper documents the impacts of using solar power systems instead of radioisotope power for all or part of the power needs of outer planetary spacecraft and illustrates the potential fuel savings of such an approach.

  2. The brazilian indigenous planetary-observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Afonso, G. B.

    2003-08-01

    We have performed observations of the sky alongside with the Indians of all Brazilian regions that made it possible localize many indigenous constellations. Some of these constellations are the same as the other South American Indians and Australian aborigines constellations. The scientific community does not have much of this information, which may be lost in one or two generations. In this work, we present a planetary-observatory that we have made in the Park of Science Newton Freire-Maia of Paraná State, in order to popularize the astronomical knowledge of the Brazilian Indians. The planetary consists, essentially, of a sphere of six meters in diameter and a projection cylinder of indigenous constellations. In this planetary we can identify a lot of constellations that we have gotten from the Brazilian Indians; for instance, the four seasonal constellations: the Tapir (spring), the Old Man (summer), the Deer (autumn) and the Rhea (winter). A two-meter height wooden staff that is posted vertically on the horizontal ground similar to a Gnomon and stones aligned with the cardinal points and the soltices directions constitutes the observatory. A stone circle of ten meters in diameter surrounds the staff and the aligned stones. During the day we observe the Sun apparent motions and at night the indigenous constellations. Due to the great community interest in our work, we are designing an itinerant indigenous planetary-observatory to be used in other cities mainly by indigenous and primary schools teachers.

  3. Utilizing a scale model solar system project to visualize important planetary science concepts and develop technology and spatial reasoning skills

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kortenkamp, Stephen J.; Brock, Laci

    2016-10-01

    Scale model solar systems have been used for centuries to help educate young students and the public about the vastness of space and the relative sizes of objects. We have adapted the classic scale model solar system activity into a student-driven project for an undergraduate general education astronomy course at the University of Arizona. Students are challenged to construct and use their three dimensional models to demonstrate an understanding of numerous concepts in planetary science, including: 1) planetary obliquities, eccentricities, inclinations; 2) phases and eclipses; 3) planetary transits; 4) asteroid sizes, numbers, and distributions; 5) giant planet satellite and ring systems; 6) the Pluto system and Kuiper belt; 7) the extent of space travel by humans and robotic spacecraft; 8) the diversity of extrasolar planetary systems. Secondary objectives of the project allow students to develop better spatial reasoning skills and gain familiarity with technology such as Excel formulas, smart-phone photography, and audio/video editing.During our presentation we will distribute a formal description of the project and discuss our expectations of the students as well as present selected highlights from preliminary submissions.

  4. Similarity theory of the buoyantly interactive planetary boundary layer with entrainment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hoffert, M. I.; Sud, Y. C.

    1976-01-01

    A similarity model is developed for the vertical profiles of turbulent flow variables in an entraining turbulent boundary layer of arbitrary buoyant stability. In the general formulation the vertical profiles, internal rotation of the velocity vector, discontinuities or jumps at a capping inversion and bulk aerodynamic coefficients of the boundary layer are given by solutions to a system of ordinary differential equations in the similarity variable. To close the system, a formulation for buoyantly interactive eddy diffusivity in the boundary layer is introduced which recovers Monin-Obukhov similarity near the surface and incorporates a hypothesis accounting for the observed variation of mixing length throughout the boundary layer. The model is tested in simplified versions which depend only on roughness, surface buoyancy, and Coriolis effects by comparison with planetary-boundary-layer wind- and temperature-profile observations, measurements of flat-plate boundary layers in a thermally stratified wind tunnel and observations of profiles of terms in the turbulent kinetic-energy budget of convective planetary boundary layers. On balance, the simplified model reproduced the trend of these various observations and experiments reasonably well, suggesting that the full similarity formulation be pursued further.

  5. Life Support and Habitation and Planetary Protection Workshop

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hogan, John A. (Editor); Race, Margaret S. (Editor); Fisher, John W. (Editor); Joshi, Jitendra A. (Editor); Rummel, John D. (Editor)

    2006-01-01

    A workshop entitled "Life Support and Habitation and Planetary Protection Workshop" was held in Houston, Texas on April 27-29, 2005 to facilitate the development of planetary protection guidelines for future human Mars exploration missions and to identify the potential effects of these guidelines on the design and selection of related human life support, extravehicular activity and monitoring and control systems. This report provides a summary of the workshop organization, starting assumptions, working group results and recommendations. Specific result topics include the identification of research and technology development gaps, potential forward and back contaminants and pathways, mitigation alternatives, and planetary protection requirements definition needs. Participants concluded that planetary protection and science-based requirements potentially affect system design, technology trade options, development costs and mission architecture. Therefore early and regular coordination between the planetary protection, scientific, planning, engineering, operations and medical communities is needed to develop workable and effective designs for human exploration of Mars.

  6. Spitzer MIPS Limits on Asteroidal Dust in the Pulsar Planetary System PSR B1257+12

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bryden, G.; Beichman, C. A.; Rieke, G. H.; Stansberry, J. A.; Stapelfeldt, K. R.; Trilling, D. E.; Turner, N. J.; Wolszczan, A.

    2006-01-01

    With the MIPS camera on Spitzer, we have searched for far-infrared emission from dust in the planetary system orbiting pulsar PSR B1257+12. With accuracies of 0.05 mJy at 24 microns and 1.5 mJy at 70 microns, photometric measurements find no evidence for emission at these wavelengths. These observations place new upper limits on the luminosity of dust with temperatures between 20 and 1000 K. They are particularly sensitive to dust temperatures of 100-200 K, for which they limit the dust luminosity to below 3 x 10(exp -5) of the pulsar's spin-down luminosity, 3 orders of magnitude better than previous limits. Despite these improved constraints on dust emission, an asteroid belt similar to the solar system's cannot be ruled out.

  7. Planetary Migration and Kuiper Belt Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malhotra, Renu

    The Kuiper belt holds memory of the dynamical processes that shaped the architecture of the solar system, including the orbital migration history of the giant planets. We propose studies of the orbital dynamics of the Kuiper Belt in order to understand the origin of its complex dynamical structure and its link to the orbital migration history of the giant planets. By means of numerical simulations, statistical tests, as well as analytical calculations we will (1) investigate the origin of resonant Kuiper belt objects to test alternative scenarios of Neptune's migration history, (2) investigate the long term dynamical evolution of the Haumea family of Kuiper Belt objects in order to improve the age estimate of this family, and (3) investigate resonance-sticking behavior and the Kozai-Lidov mechanism and its role in the origin of the extended scattered disk. These studies directly support the goals of the NASA-OSS program by improving our understanding of the origin of the solar system's architecture. Our results will provide constraints on the nature and timing of the dynamical excitation event that is thought to have occurred in early solar system history and to have determined the architecture of the present-day solar system; our results will also provide deeper theoretical understanding of sticky mean motion resonances which contribute greatly to the longevity of many small bodies, improve our understanding of dynamical transport of planetesimals in planetary systems, and help interpret observations of other planetary systems.

  8. Development of a Planetary Web GIS at the ``Photothèque Planétaire'' in Orsay

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marmo, C.

    2012-09-01

    The “Photothèque Planétaire d'Orsay” belongs to the Regional Planetary Image Facilities (RPIF) network started by NASA in 1984. The original purpose of the RPIF was mainly to provide easy access to data from US space missions throughout the world. The “Photothèque” itself specializes in planetary data processing and distribution for research and public outreach. Planetary data are heterogeneous, and combining different observations is particularly challenging, especially if they belong to different data-sets. A common description framework is needed, similar to the existing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) that have been developed for manipulating Earth data. In their present state, GIS software and standards cannot directly be applied to other planets because they still lack flexibility in managing coordinate systems. Yet, the GIS framework serves as an excellent starting point for the implementation of a Virtual Observatory for Planetary Sciences, provided it is made more generic and inter-operable. The “Photothèque Planétaire d'Orsay” has produced some planetary GIS examples using historical and public data-sets. Our main project is a Web-based visualization system for planetary data, which features direct point-and-click access to quantitative measurements. Thanks to being compatible with all recent web browsers, our interface can also be used for public outreach and to make data accessible for education and training.

  9. Cool DZ white dwarfs II: compositions and evolution of old remnant planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hollands, M. A.; Gänsicke, B. T.; Koester, D.

    2018-06-01

    In a previous study, we analysed the spectra of 230 cool (Teff < 9000 K) white dwarfs exhibiting strong metal contamination, measuring abundances for Ca, Mg, Fe and in some cases Na, Cr, Ti, or Ni. Here, we interpret these abundances in terms of the accretion of debris from extrasolar planetesimals, and infer parent body compositions ranging from crust-like (rich in Ca and Ti) to core-like (rich in Fe and Ni). In particular, two white dwarfs, SDSS J0823+0546 and SDSS J0741+3146, which show log [Fe/Ca] > 1.9 dex, and Fe to Ni ratios similar to the bulk Earth, have accreted by far the most core-like exoplanetesimals discovered to date. With cooling ages in the range 1-8 Gyr, these white dwarfs are among the oldest stellar remnants in the Milky Way, making it possible to probe the long-term evolution of their ancient planetary systems. From the decrease in maximum abundances as a function of cooling age, we find evidence that the arrival rate of material on to the white dwarfs decreases by three orders of magnitude over a ≃ 6.5 Gyr span in white dwarf cooling ages, indicating that the mass-reservoirs of post-main sequence planetary systems are depleted on a ≃ 1 Gyr e-folding time-scale. Finally, we find that two white dwarfs in our sample are members of wide binaries, and both exhibit atypically high abundances, thus providing strong evidence that distant binary companions can dynamically perturb white dwarf planetary systems.

  10. XML-based information system for planetary sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carraro, F.; Fonte, S.; Turrini, D.

    2009-04-01

    EuroPlaNet (EPN in the following) has been developed by the planetological community under the "Sixth Framework Programme" (FP6 in the following), the European programme devoted to the improvement of the European research efforts through the creation of an internal market for science and technology. The goal of the EPN programme is the creation of a European network aimed to the diffusion of data produced by space missions dedicated to the study of the Solar System. A special place within the EPN programme is that of I.D.I.S. (Integrated and Distributed Information Service). The main goal of IDIS is to offer to the planetary science community a user-friendly access to the data and information produced by the various types of research activities, i.e. Earth-based observations, space observations, modeling, theory and laboratory experiments. During the FP6 programme IDIS development consisted in the creation of a series of thematic nodes, each of them specialized in a specific scientific domain, and a technical coordination node. The four thematic nodes are the Atmosphere node, the Plasma node, the Interiors & Surfaces node and the Small Bodies & Dust node. The main task of the nodes have been the building up of selected scientific cases related with the scientific domain of each node. The second work done by EPN nodes have been the creation of a catalogue of resources related to their main scientific theme. Both these efforts have been used as the basis for the development of the main IDIS goal, i.e. the integrated distributed service. An XML-based data model have been developed to describe resources using meta-data and to store the meta-data within an XML-based database called eXist. A search engine has been then developed in order to allow users to search resources within the database. Users can select the resource type and can insert one or more values or can choose a value among those present in a list, depending on selected resource. The system searches for all

  11. A working environment for digital planetary data processing and mapping using ISIS and GRASS GIS

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Frigeri, A.; Hare, T.; Neteler, M.; Coradini, A.; Federico, C.; Orosei, R.

    2011-01-01

    Since the beginning of planetary exploration, mapping has been fundamental to summarize observations returned by scientific missions. Sensor-based mapping has been used to highlight specific features from the planetary surfaces by means of processing. Interpretative mapping makes use of instrumental observations to produce thematic maps that summarize observations of actual data into a specific theme. Geologic maps, for example, are thematic interpretative maps that focus on the representation of materials and processes and their relative timing. The advancements in technology of the last 30 years have allowed us to develop specialized systems where the mapping process can be made entirely in the digital domain. The spread of networked computers on a global scale allowed the rapid propagation of software and digital data such that every researcher can now access digital mapping facilities on his desktop. The efforts to maintain planetary missions data accessible to the scientific community have led to the creation of standardized digital archives that facilitate the access to different datasets by software capable of processing these data from the raw level to the map projected one. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been developed to optimize the storage, the analysis, and the retrieval of spatially referenced Earth based environmental geodata; since the last decade these computer programs have become popular among the planetary science community, and recent mission data start to be distributed in formats compatible with these systems. Among all the systems developed for the analysis of planetary and spatially referenced data, we have created a working environment combining two software suites that have similar characteristics in their modular design, their development history, their policy of distribution and their support system. The first, the Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) developed by the United States Geological Survey

  12. Hubble space telescope observations and geometric models of compact multipolar planetary nebulae

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hsia, Chih-Hao; Chau, Wayne; Zhang, Yong

    2014-05-20

    We report high angular resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of 10 compact planetary nebulae (PNs). Many interesting internal structures, including multipolar lobes, arcs, two-dimensional rings, tori, and halos, are revealed for the first time. These results suggest that multipolar structures are common among PNs, and these structures develop early in their evolution. From three-dimensional geometric models, we have determined the intrinsic dimensions of the lobes. Assuming the lobes are the result of interactions between later-developed fast winds and previously ejected asymptotic giant branch winds, the geometric structures of these PNs suggest that there are multiple phases of fast winds separatedmore » by temporal variations and/or directional changes. A scenario of evolution from lobe-dominated to cavity-dominated stages is presented. The results reported here will provide serious constraints on any dynamical models of PNs.« less

  13. An outline of planetary geoscience. [philosophy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1977-01-01

    A philosophy for planetary geoscience is presented to aid in addressing a number of major scientific questions; answers to these questions should constitute the basic geoscientific knowledge of the solar system. However, any compilation of major questions or basic knowledge in planetary geoscience involves compromises and somewhat arbitrary boundaries that reflect the prevalent level of understanding at the time.

  14. An artificial Kepler dichotomy? Implications for the coplanarity of planetary systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bovaird, Timothy; Lineweaver, Charles H.

    2016-10-01

    We challenge the assumptions present in previous efforts to model the ensemble of detected Kepler systems, which require a dichotomous stellar population of `fertile' and `sterile' planet producing stars. We remove the assumption of Rayleigh distributed mutual inclinations between planets and show that the need for two distinct stellar populations disappears when the inner part of planetary disks are assumed to be flat, rather than flared.

  15. Flash LIDAR Systems for Planetary Exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dissly, Richard; Weinberg, J.; Weimer, C.; Craig, R.; Earhart, P.; Miller, K.

    2009-01-01

    Ball Aerospace offers a mature, highly capable 3D flash-imaging LIDAR system for planetary exploration. Multi mission applications include orbital, standoff and surface terrain mapping, long distance and rapid close-in ranging, descent and surface navigation and rendezvous and docking. Our flash LIDAR is an optical, time-of-flight, topographic imaging system, leveraging innovations in focal plane arrays, readout integrated circuit real time processing, and compact and efficient pulsed laser sources. Due to its modular design, it can be easily tailored to satisfy a wide range of mission requirements. Flash LIDAR offers several distinct advantages over traditional scanning systems. The entire scene within the sensor's field of view is imaged with a single laser flash. This directly produces an image with each pixel already correlated in time, making the sensor resistant to the relative motion of a target subject. Additionally, images may be produced at rates much faster than are possible with a scanning system. And because the system captures a new complete image with each flash, optical glint and clutter are easily filtered and discarded. This allows for imaging under any lighting condition and makes the system virtually insensitive to stray light. Finally, because there are no moving parts, our flash LIDAR system is highly reliable and has a long life expectancy. As an industry leader in laser active sensor system development, Ball Aerospace has been working for more than four years to mature flash LIDAR systems for space applications, and is now under contract to provide the Vision Navigation System for NASA's Orion spacecraft. Our system uses heritage optics and electronics from our star tracker products, and space qualified lasers similar to those used in our CALIPSO LIDAR, which has been in continuous operation since 2006, providing more than 1.3 billion laser pulses to date.

  16. Improving accessibility and discovery of ESA planetary data through the new planetary science archive

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Macfarlane, A. J.; Docasal, R.; Rios, C.; Barbarisi, I.; Saiz, J.; Vallejo, F.; Besse, S.; Arviset, C.; Barthelemy, M.; De Marchi, G.; Fraga, D.; Grotheer, E.; Heather, D.; Lim, T.; Martinez, S.; Vallat, C.

    2018-01-01

    The Planetary Science Archive (PSA) is the European Space Agency's (ESA) repository of science data from all planetary science and exploration missions. The PSA provides access to scientific data sets through various interfaces at http://psa.esa.int. Mostly driven by the evolution of the PDS standards which all new ESA planetary missions shall follow and the need to update the interfaces to the archive, the PSA has undergone an important re-engineering. In order to maximise the scientific exploitation of ESA's planetary data holdings, significant improvements have been made by utilising the latest technologies and implementing widely recognised open standards. To facilitate users in handling and visualising the many products stored in the archive which have spatial data associated, the new PSA supports Geographical Information Systems (GIS) by implementing the standards approved by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The modernised PSA also attempts to increase interoperability with the international community by implementing recognised planetary science specific protocols such as the PDAP (Planetary Data Access Protocol) and EPN-TAP (EuroPlanet-Table Access Protocol). In this paper we describe some of the methods by which the archive may be accessed and present the challenges that are being faced in consolidating data sets of the older PDS3 version of the standards with the new PDS4 deliveries into a single data model mapping to ensure transparent access to the data for users and services whilst maintaining a high performance.

  17. Observations and Laboratory Data of Planetary Organics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roush, Ted L.

    2002-01-01

    Many efforts are underway to search for evidence of prebiotic materials in the outer solar system. Current and planned Mars missions obtain remote sensing observations that can be used to address the potential presence of prebiotic materials. Additional missions to, and continuing earth-based observations of, more distant solar system objects will also provide remote sensing observations that can be used to address the potential presence of prebiotic materials. I will present an overview of on-going observations, associated laboratory investigations of candidate materials, and theoretical modeling of observational data. In the past the room temperature reflectance spectra of many residues created from HC-bearing gases and solids have been reported. The results of an investigation of what effect temperatures more representative of outer solar system surfaces (50-140K) have on the reflectance spectra of these residues, and the associated interpretations, will be presented. The relatively organic-rich Tagish Lake Meteorite has been suggested as a spectral analog for Dtype asteroids. Using a new approach that relies upon iterative use of Hapke theory and Kraniers-Kronig analysis the optical constants of TLM were estimated. The approach and results of the analysis will be presented. Use of optical constants in scattering theories, such as the Hapke theory, provide the ability to determine quantitative estimates of the relative abundances and grain sizes of candidate surface components. This approach has been applied to interpret the reflectance spectra of several outer solar system surfaces. A summary will be provided describing the results of such modeling efforts.

  18. FUSE Observations of Neutron-Capture Elements in Wolf-Rayet Planetary Nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dinerstein, H.

    We propose to obtain FUSE observations of planetary nebula central stars of the WC Wolf-Rayet ([WC]) class, in order to search for the products of neutron-capture processes in these stars and provide constraints on their evolutionary status. Although the origin of the [WC]'s is controversial, their H-deficient, C-rich surface compositions indicate that they have experienced a high degree of mixing and/or mass loss. Thus one might expect the nebulae they produce to show enhanced concentrations of He-burning and other nuclear products, such as nuclei produced by slow neutron capture during the AGB phase. We have already detected an absorption line from one such element, Germanium (Sterling, Dinerstein, & Bowers 2002), while conducting a search for H2 absorption from nebular molecular material FUSE GI programs A085 and B069). Since the strongest Ge enhancements were found in PNe with [WC] central stars, we propose to enlarge the sample of such objects observed by FUSE. THIS TEMPORARY AND PARTIAL SCRIPT COVERS ONE TARGET, HE 2-99, AND REQUESTS AN EXPOSURE TIME OF 15 KSEC. PHASE 2 INFORMATION FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE PROGRAM'S TOTAL TIME ALLOCATION OF 60 KSEC WILL BE SUBMITTED AT A LATER TIME.

  19. To See a World in a Grain of Sand: Insights into Solar System Formation and Evolution from Isotopic Analyses of Planetary Materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wadhwa, M.

    2016-12-01

    The last few decades have seen revolutionary advances in the planetary sciences through remote observations (by spacecraft and Earth-based observatories) of many Solar System destinations and, in more recent years, even exoplanets around other stars. In parallel with this, ground-breaking developments in analytical capabilities and access to a greater variety of Solar System materials (through systematic and sustained meteorite collection programs as well as sample return missions) have led to significant insights that are complementary to those from remote observations and measurements. I will discuss two examples where the combination of remote observations and sample analyses has the potential to provide a more holistic picture of Solar System formation and evolution: 1) High-precision analyses of radiogenic isotopes in primitive and differentiated meteoritic materials, which are yielding a detailed high-resolution chronology of the first 10 million years of Solar System history. Such investigations are providing the chronological framework for the formation and evolution of small bodies (including comets, asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects) in our Solar System that are the targets of recent spacecraft missions such as NASA's Dawn and New Horizons missions and ESA's Rosetta mission. 2) In-situ analyses of hydrogen isotope compositions and H2O abundances in meteorites from Mars and Vesta, which are giving constraints on the inventory and source of water and other volatiles in these planetary bodies. These studies are providing insights complementary to those about Mars from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) missions, and about Vesta from NASA's Dawn mission.

  20. Asteroid, Lunar and Planetary Regolith Management A Layered Engineering Defense

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wagner, Sandra

    2014-01-01

    During missions on asteroid and lunar and planetary surfaces, space systems and crew health may be degraded by exposure to dust and dirt. Furthermore, for missions outside the Earth-Moon system, planetary protection must be considered in efforts to minimize forward and backward contamination. This paper presents an end-to-end approach to ensure system reliability, crew health, and planetary protection in regolith environments. It also recommends technology investments that would be required to implement this layered engineering defense.

  1. Testing Planetary Volcanism Models with Multi-Wavelength Near Infrared Observations of Kilauea Flows and Fountains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Howell, Robert R.; Radebaugh, Jani; M. C Lopes, Rosaly; Kerber, Laura; Solomonidou, Anezina; Watkins, Bryn

    2017-10-01

    Using remote sensing of planetary volcanism on objects such as Io to determine eruption conditions is challenging because the emitting region is typically not resolved and because exposed lava cools so quickly. A model of the cooling rate and eruption mechanism is typically used to predict the amount of surface area at different temperatures, then that areal distribution is convolved with a Planck blackbody emission curve, and the predicted spectra is compared with observation. Often the broad nature of the Planck curve makes interpretation non-unique. However different eruption mechanisms (for example cooling fire fountain droplets vs. cooling flows) have very different area vs. temperature distributions which can often be characterized by simple power laws. Furthermore different composition magmas have significantly different upper limit cutoff temperatures. In order to test these models in August 2016 and May 2017 we obtained spatially resolved observations of spreading Kilauea pahoehoe flows and fire fountains using a three-wavelength near-infrared prototype camera system. We have measured the area vs. temperature distribution for the flows and find that over a relatively broad temperature range the distribution does follow a power law matching the theoretical predictions. As one approaches the solidus temperature the observed area drops below the simple model predictions by an amount that seems to vary inversely with the vigor of the spreading rate. At these highest temperatures the simple models are probably inadequate. It appears necessary to model the visco-elastic stretching of the very thin crust which covers even the most recently formed surfaces. That deviation between observations and the simple models may be particularly important when using such remote sensing observations to determine magma eruption temperatures.

  2. Spatial studies of planetary nebulae with IRAS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hawkins, G.W.; Zuckerman, B.

    1991-06-01

    The infrared sizes at the four IRAS wavelengths of 57 planetaries, most with 20-60 arcsec optical size, are derived from spatial deconvolution of one-dimensional survey mode scans. Survey observations from multiple detectors and hours confirmed (HCON) observations are combined to increase the sampling to a rate that is sufficient for successful deconvolution. The Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm is used to obtain an increase in resolution of a factor of about 2 or 3 from the normal IRAS detector sizes of 45, 45, 90, and 180 arcsec at wavelengths 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. Most of the planetaries deconvolve at 12more » and 25 microns to sizes equal to or smaller than the optical size. Some of the planetaries with optical rings 60 arcsec or more in diameter show double-peaked IRAS profiles. Many, such as NGC 6720 and NGC 6543 show all infrared sizes equal to the optical size, while others indicate increasing infrared size with wavelength. Deconvolved IRAS profiles are presented for the 57 planetaries at nearly all wavelengths where IRAS flux densities are 1-2 Jy or higher. 60 refs.« less

  3. The Next Generation of Planetary Atmospheric Probes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Houben, Howard

    2005-01-01

    Entry probes provide useful insights into the structures of planetary atmospheres, but give only one-dimensional pictures of complex four-dimensional systems that vary on all temporal and spatial scales. This makes the interpretation of the results quite challenging, especially as regards atmospheric dynamics. Here is a planetary meteorologist's vision of what the next generation of atmospheric entry probe missions should be: Dedicated sounding instruments get most of the required data from orbit. Relatively simple and inexpensive entry probes are released from the orbiter, with low entry velocities, to establish ground truth, to clarify the vertical structure, and for adaptive observations to enhance the dataset in preparation for sensitive operations. The data are assimilated onboard in real time. The products, being immediately available, are of immense benefit for scientific and operational purposes (aerobraking, aerocapture, accurate payload delivery via glider, ballooning missions, weather forecasts, etc.).

  4. Airships for Planetary Exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Colozza, Anthony

    2004-01-01

    The feasibility of utilizing an airship for planetary atmospheric exploration was assessed. The environmental conditions of the planets and moons within our solar system were evaluated to determine their applicability for airship flight. A station-keeping mission of 50 days in length was used as the baseline mission. Airship sizing was performed utilizing both solar power and isotope power to meet the baseline mission goal at the selected planetary location. The results show that an isotope-powered airship is feasible within the lower atmosphere of Venus and Saturn s moon Titan.

  5. Where can a Trappist-1 planetary system be produced?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haworth, Thomas J.; Facchini, Stefano; Clarke, Cathie J.; Mohanty, Subhanjoy

    2018-04-01

    We study the evolution of protoplanetary discs that would have been precursors of a Trappist-1-like system under the action of accretion and external photoevaporation in different radiation environments. Dust grains swiftly grow above the critical size below which they are entrained in the photoevaporative wind, so although gas is continually depleted, dust is resilient to photoevaporation after only a short time. This means that the ratio of the mass in solids (dust plus planetary) to the mass in gas rises steadily over time. Dust is still stripped early on, and the initial disc mass required to produce the observed 4 M⊕ of Trappist-1 planets is high. For example, assuming a Fatuzzo & Adams distribution of UV fields, typical initial disc masses have to be >30 per cent the stellar (which are still Toomre Q stable) for the majority of similar mass M dwarfs to be viable hosts of the Trappist-1 planets. Even in the case of the lowest UV environments observed, there is a strong loss of dust due to photoevaporation at early times from the weakly bound outer regions of the disc. This minimum level of dust loss is a factor of 2 higher than that which would be lost by accretion on to the star during 10 Myr of evolution. Consequently, even in these least irradiated environments, discs that are viable Trappist-1 precursors need to be initially massive (>10 per cent of the stellar mass).

  6. Space Weathering Impact on Solar System Surfaces and Planetary Mission Science

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cooper, John F.

    2011-01-01

    We often look "through a glass, darkly" at solar system bodies with tenuous atmospheres and direct surface exposure to the local space environment. Space weathering exposure acts via universal space-surface interaction processes to produce a thin patina of outer material covering, potentially obscuring endogenic surface materials of greatest interest for understanding origins and interior evolution. Examples of obscuring exogenic layers are radiation crusts on cometary nuclei and iogenic components of sulfate hydrate deposits on the trailing hemisphere of Europa. Weathering processes include plasma ion implantation into surfaces, sputtering by charged particles and solar ultraviolet photons, photolytic chemistry driven by UV irradiation, and radiolytic chemistry evolving from products of charged particle irradiation. Regolith structure from impacts, and underlying deeper structures from internal evolution, affects efficacy of certain surface interactions, e.g. sputtering as affected by porosity and surface irradiation dosage as partly attenuated by local topographic shielding. These processes should be regarded for mission science planning as potentially enabling, e.g. since direct surface sputtering, and resultant surface-bound exospheres, can provide in-situ samples of surface composition to ion and neutral mass spectrometers on orbital spacecraft. Sample return for highest sensitivity compOSitional and structural analyses at Earth will usually be precluded by limited range of surface sampling, long times for return, and high cost. Targeted advancements in instrument technology would be more cost efficient for local remote and in-situ sample analysis. More realistic laboratory simulations, e.g. for bulk samples, are needed to interpret mission science observations of weathered surfaces. Space environment effects on mission spacecraft and science operations must also be specified and mitigated from the hourly to monthly changes in space weather and from longer

  7. Earth as an Exoplanet: Lessons in Recognizing Planetary Habitability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meadows, Victoria; Robinson, Tyler; Misra, Amit; Ennico, Kimberly; Sparks, William B.; Claire, Mark; Crisp, David; Schwieterman, Edward; Bussey, D. Ben J.; Breiner, Jonathan

    2015-01-01

    Earth will always be our best-studied example of a habitable world. While extrasolar planets are unlikely to look exactly like Earth, they may share key characteristics, such as oceans, clouds and surface inhomogeneity. Earth's globally-averaged characteristics can therefore help us to recognize planetary habitability in data-limited exoplanet observations. One of the most straightforward ways to detect habitability will be via detection of 'glint', specular reflectance from an ocean (Robinson et al., 2010). Other methods include undertaking a census of atmospheric greenhouse gases, or attempting to measure planetary surface temperature and pressure, to determine if liquid water would be feasible on the planetary surface. Here we present recent research on detecting planetary habitability, led by the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team. This work includes a collaboration with the NASA Lunar Science Institute on the detection of ocean glint and ozone absorption using Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Earth observations (Robinson et al., 2014). This data/model comparison provides the first observational test of a technique that could be used to determine exoplanet habitability from disk-integrated observations at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. We find that the VPL spectral Earth model is in excellent agreement with the LCROSS Earth data, and can be used to reliably predict Earth's appearance at a range of phases relevant to exoplanet observations. Determining atmospheric surface pressure and temperature directly for a potentially habitable planet will be challenging due to the lack of spatial-resolution, presence of clouds, and difficulty in spectrally detecting many bulk constituents of terrestrial atmospheres. Additionally, Rayleigh scattering can be masked by absorbing gases and absorption from the underlying surface. However, new techniques using molecular dimers of oxygen (Misra et al., 2014) and nitrogen

  8. Evaluation of hydrogen absorption cells for observations of the planetary coronas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuwabara, M.; Taguchi, M.; Yoshioka, K.; Ishida, T.; de Oliveira, N.; Ito, K.; Kameda, S.; Suzuki, F.; Yoshikawa, I.

    2018-02-01

    Newly designed Lyman-alpha absorption cells for imaging hydrogen planetary corona were characterized using an ultra high resolution Fourier transform spectrometer installed on the DESIRS (Dichroïsme Et Spectroscopie par Interaction avec le Rayonnement Synchrotron) beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL in France. The early absorption cell installed in the Japanese Mars orbiter NOZOMI launched in 1998 had not been sufficiently optimized due to its short development time. The new absorption cells are equipped with the ability to change various parameters, such as filament shape, applied power, H2 gas pressure, and geometrical configuration. We found that the optical thickness of the new absorption cell was ˜4 times higher than the earlier one at the center wavelength of Lyman-alpha absorption, by optimizing the condition to promote thermal dissociation of H2 molecules into two H atoms on a hot tungsten filament. The Doppler temperature of planetary coronas could be determined with an accuracy better than 100 K with the performance of the newly developed absorption cell.

  9. Planetary Photojournal Home Page Graphic

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2004-01-01

    This image is an unannotated version of the Planetary Photojournal Home Page graphic. This digital collage contains a highly stylized rendition of our solar system and points beyond. As this graphic was intended to be used as a navigation aid in searching for data within the Photojournal, certain artistic embellishments have been added (color, location, etc.). Several data sets from various planetary and astronomy missions were combined to create this image.

  10. The Elephant in the Room: Effects of Distant, Massive Companions on Planetary System Architectures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knutson, Heather

    2016-06-01

    Over the past two decades ongoing radial velocity and transit surveys have been astoundingly successful in detecting thousands of new planetary systems around nearby stars. These systems include apparently single gas giant planets on short period orbits, closely packed systems of up to 5-6 “super-Earths”, and relatively empty systems with either one or no small planets interior to 0.5 AU. Despite our success in cataloguing the diverse properties of these systems, we are still struggling to develop narratives that can explain their apparently divergent formation and migration histories. This is in large part due to our lack of knowledge about the potential presence of massive outer companions in these systems, which can play a pivotal role in the shaping the final properties of the inner planets. In my talk I will discuss current efforts to complete the census for known planetary systems by searching for outer gas giant planets with long term radial velocity monitoring and wide separation stellar companions with high contrast imaging and spectroscopy. I will then demonstrate how statistical constraints on this population of outer companions can be used to test current theories for planet formation and migration.

  11. Robo-AO KOI Survey: LGS-AO imaging of every Kepler planetary candidate host star

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ziegler, Carl; Law, Nicholas; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed

    2018-01-01

    Robo-AO is observing every Kepler planetary candidate host star (KOI) in high resolution, made possible using the unprecedented efficiency provided by automation of LGS adaptive optics. Nearby contaminating stars may be the source of false positive transit signals or, if a bona fide planet is in the system, dilute the observed transit signal, resulting in underestimated planet radii. In 3857 observations, we find 632 stars within 4" (approximately the Kepler pixel scale) of KOIs. In particular, we find 26 rocky, habitable zone planets with contaminating nearby stars, 8 of which are now more likely to have large gaseous envelopes. We present evidence that the majority of these nearby stars are unbound, and use the likely bound stars to test theories of planetary formation and evolution within multiple star systems. Finally, we discuss future all-sky, kilo-target surveys made possible by the construction of a Southern Robo-AO analog.

  12. Spectroscopic planetary detection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Deming, Drake

    1991-01-01

    One of the most promising methods for the detection of extra-solar planets is the spectroscopic method, where a small Doppler shift (approx. 10 meter/sec) in the spectrum of the parent star reveals the presence of planetary companions. However, solar type stars may show spurious Doppler shifts due to surface activity. If these effects are periodic, as is the solar activity cycle, then they may masquerade as planetary companions. The goal of this study was to determine whether the solar cycle affects the Doppler stability of integrated sunlight. Observations of integrated sunlight were made in the near infrared (approx. 2 micron), using the Kitt Peak McMath Fourier transform spectrometer, with a N2O gas absorption cell for calibration. An accuracy of approx. 5 meter/sec was achieved.

  13. The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. VIII. Observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and characterisation of the transiting planetary systems HAT-P-36 and WASP-11/HAT-P-10

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mancini, L.; Esposito, M.; Covino, E.; Raia, G.; Southworth, J.; Tregloan-Reed, J.; Biazzo, K.; Bonomo, A. S.; Desidera, S.; Lanza, A. F.; Maciejewski, G.; Poretti, E.; Sozzetti, A.; Borsa, F.; Bruni, I.; Ciceri, S.; Claudi, R.; Cosentino, R.; Gratton, R.; Martinez Fiorenzano, A. F.; Lodato, G.; Lorenzi, V.; Marzari, F.; Murabito, S.; Affer, L.; Bignamini, A.; Bedin, L. R.; Boccato, C.; Damasso, M.; Henning, Th.; Maggio, A.; Micela, G.; Molinari, E.; Pagano, I.; Piotto, G.; Rainer, M.; Scandariato, G.; Smareglia, R.; Zanmar Sanchez, R.

    2015-07-01

    Context. Orbital obliquity is thought to be a fundamental parameter in tracing the physical mechanisms that cause the migration of giant planets from the snow line down to roughly 10-2 au from their host stars. We are carrying out a large programme to estimate the spin-orbit alignment of a sample of transiting planetary systems to study what the possible configurations of orbital obliquity are and whether they correlate with other stellar or planetary properties. Aims: We determine the true and the projected obliquity of HAT-P-36 and WASP-11/HAT-P-10 systems, respectively, which are both composed of a relatively cool star (with effective temperature Teff< 6100 K) and a hot-Jupiter planet. Methods: Thanks to the high-resolution spectrograph HARPS-N, we observed the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for both systems by acquiring precise (3-8 m s-1) radial-velocity measurements during planetary transit events. We also present photometric observations comprising six light curves that cover five transit events, which were obtained using three medium-class telescopes. One transit of WASP-11/HAT-P-10 was followed simultaneously from two observatories. The three transit light curves of HAT-P-36 b show anomalies that are attributable to starspot complexes on the surface of the parent star, in agreement with the analysis of its spectra that indicates moderate activity ( log R'HK = -4.65 dex). By analysing the complete HATNet data set of HAT-P-36, we estimated the stellar rotation period by detecting a periodic photometric modulation in the light curve caused by star spots, obtaining Prot = 15.3 ± 0.4 days, which implies that the inclination of the stellar rotational axis with respect to the line of sight is i⋆ = 65° ± 34°. Results: We used the new spectroscopic and photometric data to revise the main physical parameters and measure the sky-projected misalignment angle of the two systems. We found λ = -14° ± 18° for HAT-P-36 and λ = 7° ± 5° for WASP-11/HAT-P-10

  14. Fourier transform spectroscopy for future planetary missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brasunas, John; Kolasinski, John; Kostiuk, Ted; Hewagama, Tilak

    2017-01-01

    Thermal-emission infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for exploring the composition, temperature structure, and dynamics of planetary atmospheres; and the temperature of solid surfaces. A host of Fourier transform spectrometers (FTS) such as Mariner IRIS, Voyager IRIS, and Cassini CIRS from NASA Goddard have made and continue to make important new discoveries throughout the solar system. Future FTS instruments will have to be more sensitive (when we concentrate on the colder, outer reaches of the solar system), and less massive and less power-hungry as we cope with decreasing resource allotments for future planetary science instruments. With this in mind, we have developed CIRS-lite, a smaller version of the CIRS FTS for future planetary missions. We discuss the roadmap for making CIRS-lite a viable candidate for future planetary missions, including the recent increased emphasis on ocean worlds (Europa, Encelatus, Titan) and also on smaller payloads such as CubeSats and SmallSats.

  15. Transits and starspots in the WASP-6 planetary system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tregloan-Reed, Jeremy; Southworth, John; Burgdorf, M.; Novati, S. Calchi; Dominik, M.; Finet, F.; Jørgensen, U. G.; Maier, G.; Mancini, L.; Prof, S.; Ricci, D.; Snodgrass, C.; Bozza, V.; Browne, P.; Dodds, P.; Gerner, T.; Harpsøe, K.; Hinse, T. C.; Hundertmark, M.; Kains, N.; Kerins, E.; Liebig, C.; Penny, M. T.; Rahvar, S.; Sahu, K.; Scarpetta, G.; Schäfer, S.; Schönebeck, F.; Skottfelt, J.; Surdej, J.

    2015-06-01

    We present updates to PRISM, a photometric transit-starspot model, and GEMC, a hybrid optimization code combining MCMC and a genetic algorithm. We then present high-precision photometry of four transits in the WASP-6 planetary system, two of which contain a starspot anomaly. All four transits were modelled using PRISM and GEMC, and the physical properties of the system calculated. We find the mass and radius of the host star to be 0.836 ± 0.063 M⊙ and 0.864 ± 0.024 R⊙, respectively. For the planet, we find a mass of 0.485 ± 0.027 MJup, a radius of 1.230 ± 0.035 RJup and a density of 0.244 ± 0.014 ρJup. These values are consistent with those found in the literature. In the likely hypothesis that the two spot anomalies are caused by the same starspot or starspot complex, we measure the stars rotation period and velocity to be 23.80 ± 0.15 d and 1.78 ± 0.20 km s-1, respectively, at a colatitude of 75.8°. We find that the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis is λ = 7.2° ± 3.7°, indicating axial alignment. Our results are consistent with and more precise than published spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. These results suggest that WASP-6 b formed at a much greater distance from its host star and suffered orbital decay through tidal interactions with the protoplanetary disc.

  16. Jovian Planetary Waves

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harrington, J.; Deming, D.

    1997-07-01

    We have found over two dozen discrete, linearly-propagating, periodic features in 5-{\\micron} images of Jovian cloud opacities (J. Harrington et al. 1996, Icarus 124, 32--44). Numerous spatially-sinusoidal temperature oscillations also appear in several passbands between 7 and 19 {\\microns} (D. Deming et al. 1997, Icarus 126, 301--312). Both types of Jovian planetary-scale features are zonally-oriented. They have always been detected when sought (1989, '91, '92, '93), and some individual features persist 100 Earth days or longer. These features are superficially consistent with Rossby waves, but they do not follow a simplistic dispersion relation based on cloud-top wind speeds. Planetary wavenumbers are never larger than 15, consistent with predictions based on the Rhines scale for Jupiter. There are many outstanding phenomenological questions: Where and how are the waves driven? How are waves at different atmospheric levels related? What are their true dispersion properties? How long do they last? We are continuing observations and will conduct a search of the Hubble Space Telescope archive for the \\sim 1{°ee} meridional cloud-belt deviations expected for Rossby waves. We are in the process of correlating wave detections of various types, times, and wavelengths with each other. Our goal is to constrain atmospheric stratification and vertical energy transport. Because Rossby waves propagate vertically, these features may probe conditions at the interface between the meteorological atmosphere and the planetary interior. Work supported by NASA Planetary Astronomy RTOP 196-41-54. Work performed while J. H. held a National Research Council - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Research Associateship.

  17. Vibrational-Rotational Spectroscopy For Planetary Atmospheres, volume 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mumma, M. J. (Editor); Fox, K. (Editor); Hornstein, J. (Editor)

    1982-01-01

    Comprehensive information on the composition and dynamics of the varied planetary atmospheres is summarized. New observations resulted in new demands for supporting laboratory studies. Spectra observed from spacecraft used to interpret planetary atmospheric structure measurements, to aid in greenhouse and cloud physics calculations, and to plan future experiments are discussed. Current findings and new ideas of physicists, chemists, and planetry astronomers relating to the knowledge of the structure of things large and small, of planets and of molecules are summarized.

  18. Calcium signals in planetary embryos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morbidelli, Alessandro

    2018-03-01

    The calcium-isotope composition of planetary bodies in the inner Solar System correlates with the masses of such objects. This finding could have implications for our understanding of how the Solar System formed.

  19. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Education

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2004-01-01

    The session "Education" includes the following topics: 1) Convection, Magnetism, Orbital Resonances, Impacts, and Volcanism: Energies and Processes in the Solar System: Didactic Activities; 2) Knowledge Management in Aerospace-Education and Training Issues; 3) Creating Easy-to-Understand Planetary Maps; 4) Planetary Environment comparison in the Education of Astrobiology; and 5) Design and Construction of a Mechanism for the Orbital Resonances Simulation.

  20. Multiple components in narrow planetary rings.

    PubMed

    Benet, L; Merlo, O

    2008-01-11

    The phase-space volume of regions of regular or trapped motion, for bounded or scattering systems with 2 degrees of freedom, respectively, displays universal properties. In particular, drastic reductions in the volume (gaps) are observed at specific values of a control parameter. Using the stability resonances we show that they, and not the mean-motion resonances, account for the position of these gaps. For more degrees of freedom, exciting these resonances divides the regions of trapped motion. For planetary rings, we demonstrate that this mechanism yields rings with multiple components.

  1. Physics of planetary rings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gorkavyi, N.

    2007-08-01

    It is difficult to enumerate all the surprises presented by the planetary rings. The Saturnian rings are stratified into thousands of ringlets and the Uranian rings are compressed into narrow streams, which for some reason or other differ from circular orbits like the wheel of an old bicycle. The edge of the rings is jagged and the rings themselves are pegged down under the gravitational pressure of the satellites, bending like a ship's wake. There are spiral waves, elliptical rings, strange interlacing of narrow ringlets, and to cap it all one has observed in the Neptunian ring system three dense, bright arcs - like bunches of sausages on a transparent string. For celestial mechanics this is a spectacle as unnatural as a bear's tooth in the necklace of the English queen. In the dynamics of planetary rings the physics of collective interaction was supplemented by taking collisions between particles into account. One was led to study a kinetic equation with a rather complex collision integral - because the collisions are inelastic - which later on made it possible, both by using the Chapman-Enskog method and by using the solution of the kinetic equation for a plasma in a magnetic field, to reduce it to a closed set of (hydrodynamical) moment equations [1]. The hydrodynamical instabilities lead to the growth of short-wavelength waves and large-scale structures of the Saturnian rings [1]. We have shown that the formation of the existing dense Uranian rings is connected with the capture of positively drifting ring particles in inner Lindblad resonances which arrest this drift [1]. After the formation of dense rings at the positions of satellite resonances the collective interaction between resonant particles is amplified and the rings can leave the resonance and drift away from the planet and the parent resonance. We can expect in the C ring an appreciable positive ballistic particle drift caused by the erosion of the B ring by micrometeorites. It is therefore natural

  2. Numerical simulation of an experimental analogue of a planetary magnetosphere

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liao, Andy Sha; Li, Shule; Hartigan, Patrick; Graham, Peter; Fiksel, Gennady; Frank, Adam; Foster, John; Kuranz, Carolyn

    2015-12-01

    Recent improvements to the Omega Laser Facility's magneto-inertial fusion electrical discharge system (MIFEDS) have made it possible to generate strong enough magnetic fields in the laboratory to begin to address the physics of magnetized astrophysical flows. Here, we adapt the MHD code AstroBEAR to create 2D numerical models of an experimental analogue of a planetary magnetosphere. We track the secular evolution of the magnetosphere analogue and we show that the magnetospheric components such as the magnetopause, magnetosheath, and bow shock, should all be observable in experimental optical band thermal bremsstrahlung emissivity maps, assuming equilibrium charge state distributions of the plasma. When the magnetosphere analogue nears the steady state, the mid-plane altitude of the magnetopause from the wire surface scales as the one-half power of the ratio of the magnetic pressure at the surface of the free wire to the ram pressure of an unobstructed wind; the mid-plane thickness of the magnetosheath is directly related to the radius of the magnetopause. This behavior conforms to Chapman and Ferraro's theory of planetary magnetospheres. Although the radial dependence of the magnetic field strength differs between the case of a current-carrying wire and a typical planetary object, the major morphological features that develop when a supersonic flow passes either system are identical. Hence, this experimental concept is an attractive one for studying the dynamics of planetary magnetospheres in a controlled environment.

  3. Lidar observations of the planetary boundary layer during FASINEX

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Melfi, S. H.; Boers, R.; Palm, S. P.

    1988-01-01

    Data are presented on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) over the ocean acquired with an airborne downward-looking lidar during the Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment (FASINEX) with the purpose of studying the impact of an ocean front on air-sea interactions. No changes in the PBL structure were detected by lidar. Lidar data were then used along with other readily available remotely-sensed data and a one-dimensional boundary-layer-growth model to infer the mean PBL moisture and temperature structure and to estimate the surface fluxes of heat and moisture.

  4. A Science Rationale for Mobility in Planetary Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1999-01-01

    For the last several decades, the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) has advocated a systematic approach to exploration of the solar system; that is, the information and understanding resulting from one mission provide the scientific foundations that motivate subsequent, more elaborate investigations. COMPLEX's 1994 report, An Integrated Strategy for the Planetary Sciences: 1995-2010,1 advocated an approach to planetary studies emphasizing "hypothesizing and comprehending" rather than "cataloging and categorizing." More recently, NASA reports, including The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan2 and, in particular, Mission to the Solar System: Exploration and Discovery-A Mission and Technology Roadmap,3 have outlined comprehensive plans for planetary exploration during the next several decades. The missions outlined in these plans are both generally consistent with the priorities outlined in the Integrated Strategy and other NRC reports,4-5 and are replete with examples of devices embodying some degree of mobility in the form of rovers, robotic arms, and the like. Because the change in focus of planetary studies called for in the Integrated Strategy appears to require an evolutionary change in the technical means by which solar system exploration missions are conducted, the Space Studies Board charged COMPLEX to review the science that can be uniquely addressed by mobility in planetary environments. In particular, COMPLEX was asked to address the following questions: (1) What are the practical methods for achieving mobility? (2) For surface missions, what are the associated needs for sample acquisition? (3) What is the state of technology for planetary mobility in the United States and elsewhere, and what are the key requirements for technology development? (4) What terrestrial field demonstrations are required prior to spaceflight missions?

  5. A Scientific Rationale for Mobility in Planetary Environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1999-01-01

    For the last several decades, the COMmittee on Planetary and Lunar EXploration (COMPLEX) has advocated a systematic approach to exploration of the solar system; that is, the information and understanding resulting from one mission provide the scientific foundations that motivate subsequent, more elaborate investigations. COMPLEX's 1994 report, An Integrated Strategy for the Planetary Sciences: 1995-2010,1 advocated an approach to planetary studies emphasizing "hypothesizing and comprehending" rather than "cataloging and categorizing." More recently, NASA reports, including The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan' and, in particular, Mission to the Solar System: Exploration and Discovery-A Mission and Technology Roadmap, 3 have outlined comprehensive plans for planetary exploration during the next several decades. The missions outlined in these plans are both generally consistent with the priorities outlined in the Integrated Strategy and other NRC reports,4,5 and are replete with examples of devices embodying some degree of mobility in the form of rovers, robotic arms, and the like. Because the change in focus of planetary studies called for in the Integrated Strategy appears to require an evolutionary change in the technical means by which solar system exploration missions are conducted, the Space Studies Board charged COMPLEX to review the science that can be uniquely addressed by mobility in planetary environments. In particular, COMPLEX was asked to address the following questions: 1. What are the practical methods for achieving mobility? 2. For surface missions, what are the associated needs for sample acquisition? 3. What is the state of technology for planetary mobility in the United States and elsewhere, and what are the key requirements for technology development? 4. What terrestrial field demonstrations are required prior to spaceflight missions?

  6. Wide Field and Planetary Camera for Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lockhart, R. F.

    1982-01-01

    The Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera instrument, presently under construction, will be used to map the observable universe and to study the outer planets. It will be able to see 1000 times farther than any previously employed instrument. The Wide Field system will be located in a radial bay, receiving its signals via a pick-off mirror centered on the optical axis of the telescope assembly. The external thermal radiator employed by the instrument for cooling will be part of the exterior surface of the Space Telescope. In addition to having a larger (1200-12,000 A) wavelength range than any of the other Space Telescope instruments, its data rate, at 1 Mb/sec, exceeds that of the other instruments. Attention is given to the operating modes and projected performance levels of the Wide Field Camera and Planetary Camera.

  7. Extra Solar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph and Science Requirements for the James Webb Telescope Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Clampin, Mark

    2004-01-01

    1) Extra solar planetary imaging coronagraph. Direct detection and characterization of Jovian planets, and other gas giants, in orbit around nearby stars is a necessary precursor to Terrestrial Planet Finder 0 in order to estimate the probability of Terrestrial planets in our stellar neighborhood. Ground based indirect methods are biased towards large close in Jovian planets in solar systems unlikely io harbor Earthlike planets. Thus to estimate the relative abundances of terrestrial planets and to determine optimal observing strategies for TPF a pathfinder mission would be desired. The Extra-Solar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC) is such a pathfinder mission. Upto 83 stellar systems are accessible with a 1.5 meter unobscured telescope and coronagraph combination located at the Earth-Sun L2 point. Incorporating radiometric and angular resolution considerations show that Jovians could be directly detected (5 sigma) in the 0.5 - 1.0 micron band outside of an inner working distance of 5/D with integration times of -10 - 100 hours per observation. The primary considerations for a planet imager are optical wavefront quality due to manufacturing, alignment, structural and thermal considerations. pointing stability and control, and manufacturability of coronagraphic masks and stops to increase the planetary-to- stellar contrast and mitigate against straylight. Previously proposed coronagraphic concepts are driven to extreme tolerances. however. we have developed and studied a mission, telescope and coronagraphic detection concept, which is achievable in the time frame of a Discovery class NASA mission. 2) Science requirements for the James Webb Space Telescope observatory. The James Webb Space Observatory (JWST) is an infrared observatory, which will be launched in 201 1 to an orbit at L2. JWST is a segmented, 18 mirror segment telescope with a diameter of 6.5 meters, and a clear aperture of 25 mA2. The telescope is designed to conduct imaging and spectroscopic

  8. Planetary Waves and Mesoscale Disturbances in the Middle and Upper Atmosphere

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1998-05-14

    processing of ionogram records made us to begin designing a computer - controlled system to collect, store, display and scale the ionograms in digital...circuit board " L - 154". L - 154 passed signals from the re- ceiver and the system of the control to computer in order to collect in for motion...the main purpose of the PSMOS project is the establishment of a ground-based mesopause observing system for the investigation of planetary scale

  9. Conference on Planetary Volatiles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hrametz, K.; Kofler, L.

    1982-01-01

    Initial and present volatile inventories and distributions in the Earth, other planets, meteorites, and comets; observational evidence on the time history of volatile transfer among reservoirs; and volatiles in planetary bodies, their mechanisms of transport, and their relation to thermal, chemical, geological and biological evolution were addressed.

  10. Conference on Planetary Volatiles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hrametz, K.; Kofler, L.

    1982-10-01

    Initial and present volatile inventories and distributions in the Earth, other planets, meteorites, and comets; observational evidence on the time history of volatile transfer among reservoirs; and volatiles in planetary bodies, their mechanisms of transport, and their relation to thermal, chemical, geological and biological evolution were addressed.

  11. Conference on Planetary Volatiles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pepin, R. O.; Oconnell, R.

    Initial and present volatile inventories and distributions in the Earth, other planets, meteorites, and comets; observational evidence on the time history of volatile transfer among reservoirs; and volatiles in planetary bodies, their mechanisms of transport, and their relation to thermal, chemical, geological and biological evolution are addressed.

  12. Conference on Planetary Volatiles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pepin, R. O. (Compiler); Oconnell, R. (Compiler)

    1982-01-01

    Initial and present volatile inventories and distributions in the Earth, other planets, meteorites, and comets; observational evidence on the time history of volatile transfer among reservoirs; and volatiles in planetary bodies, their mechanisms of transport, and their relation to thermal, chemical, geological and biological evolution are addressed.

  13. NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Arvidson, Raymond E.

    2001-01-01

    The Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF) provided access to data from NASA planetary missions and expert assistance about the data sets and how to order subsets of the collections. This ensures that the benefit/cost of acquiring the data is maximized by widespread dissemination and use of the observations and resultant collections. The RPIF provided education and outreach functions that ranged from providing data and information to teachers, involving small groups of highly motivated students in its activities, to public lectures and tours. These activities maximized dissemination of results and data to the educational and public communities.

  14. The two-box model of climate: limitations and applications to planetary habitability and maximum entropy production studies.

    PubMed

    Lorenz, Ralph D

    2010-05-12

    The 'two-box model' of planetary climate is discussed. This model has been used to demonstrate consistency of the equator-pole temperature gradient on Earth, Mars and Titan with what would be predicted from a principle of maximum entropy production (MEP). While useful for exposition and for generating first-order estimates of planetary heat transports, it has too low a resolution to investigate climate systems with strong feedbacks. A two-box MEP model agrees well with the observed day : night temperature contrast observed on the extrasolar planet HD 189733b.

  15. The two-box model of climate: limitations and applications to planetary habitability and maximum entropy production studies

    PubMed Central

    Lorenz, Ralph D.

    2010-01-01

    The ‘two-box model’ of planetary climate is discussed. This model has been used to demonstrate consistency of the equator–pole temperature gradient on Earth, Mars and Titan with what would be predicted from a principle of maximum entropy production (MEP). While useful for exposition and for generating first-order estimates of planetary heat transports, it has too low a resolution to investigate climate systems with strong feedbacks. A two-box MEP model agrees well with the observed day : night temperature contrast observed on the extrasolar planet HD 189733b. PMID:20368253

  16. The cross-over to magnetostrophic convection in planetary dynamo systems

    PubMed Central

    King, E. M.

    2017-01-01

    Global scale magnetostrophic balance, in which Lorentz and Coriolis forces comprise the leading-order force balance, has long been thought to describe the natural state of planetary dynamo systems. This argument arises from consideration of the linear theory of rotating magnetoconvection. Here we test this long-held tenet by directly comparing linear predictions against dynamo modelling results. This comparison shows that dynamo modelling results are not typically in the global magnetostrophic state predicted by linear theory. Then, in order to estimate at what scale (if any) magnetostrophic balance will arise in nonlinear dynamo systems, we carry out a simple scaling analysis of the Elsasser number Λ, yielding an improved estimate of the ratio of Lorentz and Coriolis forces. From this, we deduce that there is a magnetostrophic cross-over length scale, LX≈(Λo2/Rmo)D, where Λo is the linear (or traditional) Elsasser number, Rmo is the system scale magnetic Reynolds number and D is the length scale of the system. On scales well above LX, magnetostrophic convection dynamics should not be possible. Only on scales smaller than LX should it be possible for the convective behaviours to follow the predictions for the magnetostrophic branch of convection. Because LX is significantly smaller than the system scale in most dynamo models, their large-scale flows should be quasi-geostrophic, as is confirmed in many dynamo simulations. Estimating Λo≃1 and Rmo≃103 in Earth’s core, the cross-over scale is approximately 1/1000 that of the system scale, suggesting that magnetostrophic convection dynamics exists in the core only on small scales below those that can be characterized by geomagnetic observations. PMID:28413338

  17. The effects of mass and metallicity upon planetary nebula formation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Papp, K. A.; Purton, C. R.; Kwok, S.

    1983-05-01

    A parameterized function is constructed which describes the possible dependence of planetary nebula formation upon metal abundance and stellar mass. Data on galaxies in the Local Group compared with predictions made from the parameterized function indicate that heavy element abundance is the principal agent influencing the formation of planetary nebulae; stars which are rich in heavy elements are the progenitors of planetary nebulae. This analysis, when compared with the observations, argues for a modest degree of pre-enrichment in a few of the sample galaxies. The heavy element dependence of planetary nebula formation also accounts for the deficit of planetary nebulae in the nuclei of NGC 221 and NGC 224, and in the bulge of our Galaxy.

  18. Planetary Engulfment as a Trigger for White Dwarf Pollution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrovich, Cristobal; Muñoz, Diego J.

    2017-01-01

    The presence of a planetary system can shield a planetesimal disk from the secular gravitational perturbations due to distant outer massive objects (planets or stellar companions). As the host star evolves off the main sequence to become a white dwarf, these planets can be engulfed during the giant phase, triggering secular instabilities and leading to the tidal disruptions of small rocky bodies. These disrupted bodies can feed the white dwarfs with rocky material and possibly explain the high-metallicity material in their atmospheres. We illustrate how this mechanism can operate when the gravitational perturbations are due to the KL mechanism from a stellar binary companion, a process that is activated only after the planet has been removed/engulfed. We show that this mechanism can explain the observed accretion rates if: (1) the planetary engulfment happens rapidly compared to the secular timescale, which is generally the case for wide binaries (> 100 au) and planetary engulfment during the asymptotic giant branch; (2) the planetesimal disk has a total mass of ˜ {10}-4-{10}-2{M}\\oplus . We show that this new mechanism can provide a steady supply of material throughout the entire life of the white dwarfs for all cooling ages and can account for a large fraction (up to nearly half) of the observed polluted white dwarfs.

  19. Shaping planetary nebulae with jets in inclined triple stellar systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akashi, Muhammad; Soker, Noam

    2017-10-01

    We conduct three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of two opposite jets launched obliquely to the orbital plane around an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star and within its dense wind, and demonstrate the formation of a `messy' planetary nebula (PN), namely, a PN lacking any type of symmetry (highly irregular). In building the initial conditions we assume that a tight binary system orbits the AGB star, and that the orbital plane of the tight binary system is inclined to the orbital plane of binary system and the AGB star. We further assume that the accreted mass onto the tight binary system forms an accretion disk around one of the stars, and that the plane of the disk is in between the two orbital planes. The highly asymmetrical lobes that we obtain support the notion that messy PNe might be shaped by triple stellar systems.

  20. Fluvial geomorphology on Earth-like planetary surfaces: A review

    PubMed Central

    Baker, Victor R.; Hamilton, Christopher W.; Burr, Devon M.; Gulick, Virginia C.; Komatsu, Goro; Luo, Wei; Rice, James W.; Rodriguez, J.A.P.

    2017-01-01

    Morphological evidence for ancient channelized flows (fluvial and fluvial-like landforms) exists on the surfaces of all of the inner planets and on some of the satellites of the Solar System. In some cases, the relevant fluid flows are related to a planetary evolution that involves the global cycling of a volatile component (water for Earth and Mars; methane for Saturn’s moon Titan). In other cases, as on Mercury, Venus, Earth’s moon, and Jupiter’s moon Io, the flows were of highly fluid lava. The discovery, in 1972, of what are now known to be fluvial channels and valleys on Mars sparked a major controversy over the role of water in shaping the surface of that planet. The recognition of the fluvial character of these features has opened unresolved fundamental questions about the geological history of water on Mars, including the presence of an ancient ocean and the operation of a hydrological cycle during the earliest phases of planetary history. Other fundamental questions posed by fluvial and fluvial-like features on planetary bodies include the possible erosive action of large-scale outpourings of very fluid lavas, such as those that may have produced the remarkable canali forms on Venus; the ability of exotic fluids, such as methane, to create fluvial-like landforms, as observed on Saturn’s moon, Titan; and the nature of sedimentation and erosion under different conditions of planetary surface gravity. Planetary fluvial geomorphology also illustrates fundamental epistemological and methodological issues, including the role of analogy in geomorphological/geological inquiry. PMID:29176917

  1. Fluvial geomorphology on Earth-like planetary surfaces: A review.

    PubMed

    Baker, Victor R; Hamilton, Christopher W; Burr, Devon M; Gulick, Virginia C; Komatsu, Goro; Luo, Wei; Rice, James W; Rodriguez, J A P

    2015-09-15

    Morphological evidence for ancient channelized flows (fluvial and fluvial-like landforms) exists on the surfaces of all of the inner planets and on some of the satellites of the Solar System. In some cases, the relevant fluid flows are related to a planetary evolution that involves the global cycling of a volatile component (water for Earth and Mars; methane for Saturn's moon Titan). In other cases, as on Mercury, Venus, Earth's moon, and Jupiter's moon Io, the flows were of highly fluid lava. The discovery, in 1972, of what are now known to be fluvial channels and valleys on Mars sparked a major controversy over the role of water in shaping the surface of that planet. The recognition of the fluvial character of these features has opened unresolved fundamental questions about the geological history of water on Mars, including the presence of an ancient ocean and the operation of a hydrological cycle during the earliest phases of planetary history. Other fundamental questions posed by fluvial and fluvial-like features on planetary bodies include the possible erosive action of large-scale outpourings of very fluid lavas, such as those that may have produced the remarkable canali forms on Venus; the ability of exotic fluids, such as methane, to create fluvial-like landforms, as observed on Saturn's moon, Titan; and the nature of sedimentation and erosion under different conditions of planetary surface gravity. Planetary fluvial geomorphology also illustrates fundamental epistemological and methodological issues, including the role of analogy in geomorphological/geological inquiry.

  2. Planetary Protection Constraints For Planetary Exploration and Exobiology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Debus, A.; Bonneville, R.; Viso, M.

    According to the article IX of the OUTER SPACE TREATY (London / Washington January 27., 1967) and in the frame of extraterrestrial missions, it is required to preserve planets and Earth from contamination. For ethical, safety and scientific reasons, the space agencies have to comply with the Outer Space Treaty and to take into account the related planetary protection Cospar recommendations. Planetary protection takes also into account the protection of exobiological science, because the results of life detection experimentations could have impacts on planetary protection regulations. The validation of their results depends strongly of how the samples have been collected, stored and analyzed, and particularly of their biological and organic cleanliness. Any risk of contamination by organic materials, chemical coumpounds and by terrestrial microorganisms must be avoided. A large number of missions is presently scheduled, particularly on Mars, in order to search for life or traces of past life. In the frame of such missions, CNES is building a planetary protection organization in order handle and to take in charge all tasks linked to science and engineering concerned by planetary protection. Taking into account CNES past experience in planetary protection related to the Mars 96 mission, its planned participation in exobiological missions with NASA as well as its works and involvement in Cospar activities, this paper will present the main requirements in order to avoid celestial bodies biological contamination, focussing on Mars and including Earth, and to protect exobiological science.

  3. Current Status of a NASA High-Altitude Balloon-Based Observatory for Planetary Science

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Varga, Denise M.; Dischner, Zach

    2015-01-01

    Recent studies have shown that progress can be made on over 20% of the key questions called out in the current Planetary Science Decadal Survey by a high-altitude balloon-borne observatory. Therefore, NASA has been assessing concepts for a gondola-based observatory that would achieve the greatest possible science return in a low-risk and cost-effective manner. This paper addresses results from the 2014 Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) mission, namely successes in the design and performance of the Fine Pointing System. The paper also addresses technical challenges facing the new Gondola for High Altitude Planetary Science (GHAPS) reusable platform, including thermal control for the Optical Telescope Assembly, power generation and management, and weight-saving considerations that the team will be assessing in 2015 and beyond.

  4. Fourier transform spectroscopy for future planetary missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brasunas, John C.; Hewagama, Tilak; Kolasinski, John R.; Kostiuk, Theodor

    2015-11-01

    Thermal-emission infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for exploring the composition, temperature structure, and dynamics of planetary atmospheres; and the temperature of solid surfaces. A host of Fourier transform spectrometers (FTS) such as Mariner IRIS, Voyager IRIS, and Cassini CIRS from NASA Goddard have made and continue to make important new discoveries throughout the solar system.Future FTS instruments will have to be more sensitive (when we concentrate on the colder, outer reaches of the solar system), and less massive and less power-hungry as we cope with decreasing resource allotments for future planetary science instruments. With this in mind, NASA Goddard was funded via the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Progrem (PIDDP) to develop CIRS-lite, a smaller version of the CIRS FTS for future planetary missions. Following the initial validation of CIRS-lite operation in the laboratory, we have been acquiring atmospheric data in the 8-12 micron window at the 1.2 m telescope at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) in Greenbelt, MD. Targets so far have included Earth's atmosphere (in emission, and in absorption against the moon), and Venus.We will present the roadmap for making CIRS-lite a viable candidate for future planetary missions.

  5. Planetary benchmarks. [structural design criteria for radar reference devices on planetary surfaces

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Uphoff, C.; Staehle, R.; Kobrick, M.; Jurgens, R.; Price, H.; Slade, M.; Sonnabend, D.

    1978-01-01

    Design criteria and technology requirements for a system of radar reference devices to be fixed to the surfaces of the inner planets are discussed. Offshoot applications include the use of radar corner reflectors as landing beacons on the planetary surfaces and some deep space applications that may yield a greatly enhanced knowledge of the gravitational and electromagnetic structure of the solar system. Passive retroreflectors with dimensions of about 4 meters and weighing about 10 kg are feasible for use with orbiting radar at Venus and Mars. Earth-based observation of passive reflectors, however, would require very large and complex structures to be delivered to the surfaces. For Earth-based measurements, surface transponders offer a distinct advantage in accuracy over passive reflectors. A conceptual design for a high temperature transponder is presented. The design appears feasible for the Venus surface using existing electronics and power components.

  6. The mysterious age invariance of the planetary nebula luminosity function bright cut-off

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gesicki, K.; Zijlstra, A. A.; Miller Bertolami, M. M.

    2018-05-01

    Planetary nebulae mark the end of the active life of 90% of all stars. They trace the transition from a red giant to a degenerate white dwarf. Stellar models1,2 predicted that only stars above approximately twice the solar mass could form a bright nebula. But the ubiquitous presence of bright planetary nebulae in old stellar populations, such as elliptical galaxies, contradicts this: such high-mass stars are not present in old systems. The planetary nebula luminosity function, and especially its bright cut-off, is almost invariant between young spiral galaxies, with high-mass stars, and old elliptical galaxies, with only low-mass stars. Here, we show that new evolutionary tracks of low-mass stars are capable of explaining in a simple manner this decades-old mystery. The agreement between the observed luminosity function and computed stellar evolution validates the latest theoretical modelling. With these models, the planetary nebula luminosity function provides a powerful diagnostic to derive star formation histories of intermediate-age stars. The new models predict that the Sun at the end of its life will also form a planetary nebula, but it will be faint.

  7. HUBBLE'S PLANETARY NEBULA GALLERY

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2002-01-01

    [Top left] - IC 3568 lies in the constellation Camelopardalis at a distance of about 9,000 light-years, and has a diameter of about 0.4 light-years (or about 800 times the diameter of our solar system). It is an example of a round planetary nebula. Note the bright inner shell and fainter, smooth, circular outer envelope. Credits: Howard Bond (Space Telescope Science Institute), Robin Ciardullo (Pennsylvania State University) and NASA [Top center] - NGC 6826's eye-like appearance is marred by two sets of blood-red 'fliers' that lie horizontally across the image. The surrounding faint green 'white' of the eye is believed to be gas that made up almost half of the star's mass for most of its life. The hot remnant star (in the center of the green oval) drives a fast wind into older material, forming a hot interior bubble which pushes the older gas ahead of it to form a bright rim. (The star is one of the brightest stars in any planetary.) NGC 6826 is 2,200 light- years away in the constellation Cygnus. The Hubble telescope observation was taken Jan. 27, 1996 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Credits: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy) and NASA [Top right ] - NGC 3918 is in the constellation Centaurus and is about 3,000 light-years from us. Its diameter is about 0.3 light-year. It shows a roughly spherical outer envelope but an elongated inner balloon inflated by a fast wind from the hot central star, which is starting to break out of the spherical envelope at the top and bottom of the image. Credits: Howard Bond (Space Telescope Science Institute), Robin Ciardullo (Pennsylvania State University) and NASA [Bottom left] - Hubble 5 is a striking example of a 'butterfly' or bipolar (two-lobed) nebula. The heat generated by fast winds causes

  8. The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Additional Planetary and Low-Luminosity Object Transits from the OGLE 2001 and 2002 Observational Campaigns

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Udalski, A.; Pietrzynski, G.; Szymanski, M.; Kubiak, M.; Zebrun, K.; Soszynski, I.; Szewczyk, O.; Wyrzykowski, L.

    2003-06-01

    The photometric data collected by OGLE-III during the 2001 and 2002 observational campaigns aiming at detection of planetary or low-luminosity object transits were corrected for small scale systematic effects using the data pipeline by Kruszewski and Semeniuk and searched again for low amplitude transits. Sixteen new objects with small transiting companions, additional to previously found samples, were discovered. Most of them are small amplitude cases which remained undetected in the original data. Several new objects seem to be very promising candidates for systems containing substellar objects: extrasolar planets or brown dwarfs. Those include OGLE-TR-122, OGLE-TR-125, OGLE-TR-130, OGLE-TR-131 and a few others. Those objects are particularly worth spectroscopic follow-up observations for radial velocity measurements and mass determination. With well known photometric orbit only a few RV measurements should allow to confirm their actual status. All photometric data of presented objects are available to the astronomical community from the OGLE Internet archive.

  9. Global Observation of Planetary-Scale Waves in UARS HRDI and WINDII MLT Winds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lieberman, Ruth

    1999-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to use examine planetary-scale motions in the UARS mesosphere and lower thermospheric data. The actual study was confined to HRDI winds and temperatures, since these observations were more continuous, and spanned the 60-120 km range. Three classes of waves were studied: fast equatorial Kelvin waves, nonmigrating tides, and the midlatitude 2-day wave. The purpose of the Kelvin wave and the 2-day wave studies was to test whether the waves significantly affect the mean flow. Such studies require high-quality spectral definitions in order to derive the wave heat and momentum flux divergence which can act in comination to drive the mean flow. Accordingly, HRDI winds from several special observing campaigns were used for analyses of fast (periods under 5 days) waves. The campaigns are characterized by continuous viewing by HRDI in 2 viewing directions, for periods of 10-12 days. Data sampled in this manner lend themselves quite well to "asynoptic spectral analysis", from which motions with periods as low as one day can be retrieved with relatively minimal aliasing.

  10. A study of the selection of microcomputer architectures to automate planetary spacecraft power systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nauda, A.

    1982-01-01

    Performance and reliability models of alternate microcomputer architectures as a methodology for optimizing system design were examined. A methodology for selecting an optimum microcomputer architecture for autonomous operation of planetary spacecraft power systems was developed. Various microcomputer system architectures are analyzed to determine their application to spacecraft power systems. It is suggested that no standardization formula or common set of guidelines exists which provides an optimum configuration for a given set of specifications.

  11. TOWARD A DETERMINISTIC MODEL OF PLANETARY FORMATION. VII. ECCENTRICITY DISTRIBUTION OF GAS GIANTS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ida, S.; Lin, D. N. C.; Nagasawa, M., E-mail: ida@geo.titech.ac.jp, E-mail: lin@ucolick.org, E-mail: nagasawa.m.ad@m.titech.ac.jp

    2013-09-20

    The ubiquity of planets and diversity of planetary systems reveal that planet formation encompasses many complex and competing processes. In this series of papers, we develop and upgrade a population synthesis model as a tool to identify the dominant physical effects and to calibrate the range of physical conditions. Recent planet searches have led to the discovery of many multiple-planet systems. Any theoretical models of their origins must take into account dynamical interactions between emerging protoplanets. Here, we introduce a prescription to approximate the close encounters between multiple planets. We apply this method to simulate the growth, migration, and dynamicalmore » interaction of planetary systems. Our models show that in relatively massive disks, several gas giants and rocky/icy planets emerge, migrate, and undergo dynamical instability. Secular perturbation between planets leads to orbital crossings, eccentricity excitation, and planetary ejection. In disks with modest masses, two or less gas giants form with multiple super-Earths. Orbital stability in these systems is generally maintained and they retain the kinematic structure after gas in their natal disks is depleted. These results reproduce the observed planetary mass-eccentricity and semimajor axis-eccentricity correlations. They also suggest that emerging gas giants can scatter residual cores to the outer disk regions. Subsequent in situ gas accretion onto these cores can lead to the formation of distant (∼> 30 AU) gas giants with nearly circular orbits.« less

  12. NASA's Planetary Science Missions and Participations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daou, Doris; Green, James L.

    2017-04-01

    NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD) and space agencies around the world are collaborating on an extensive array of missions exploring our solar system. Planetary science missions are conducted by some of the most sophisticated robots ever built. International collaboration is an essential part of what we do. NASA has always encouraged international participation on our missions both strategic (ie: Mars 2020) and competitive (ie: Discovery and New Frontiers) and other Space Agencies have reciprocated and invited NASA investigators to participate in their missions. NASA PSD has partnerships with virtually every major space agency. For example, NASA has had a long and very fruitful collaboration with ESA. ESA has been involved in the Cassini mission and, currently, NASA funded scientists are involved in the Rosetta mission (3 full instruments, part of another), BepiColombo mission (1 instrument in the Italian Space Agency's instrument suite), and the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer mission (1 instrument and parts of two others). In concert with ESA's Mars missions NASA has an instrument on the Mars Express mission, the orbit-ground communications package on the Trace Gas Orbiter (launched in March 2016) and part of the DLR/Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer instruments going onboard the ExoMars Rover (to be launched in 2018). NASA's Planetary Science Division has continuously provided its U.S. planetary science community with opportunities to include international participation on NASA missions too. For example, NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Programs provide U.S. scientists the opportunity to assemble international teams and design exciting, focused planetary science investigations that would deepen the knowledge of our Solar System. The PSD put out an international call for instruments on the Mars 2020 mission. This procurement led to the selection of Spain and Norway scientist leading two instruments and French scientists providing a significant portion of another

  13. Spin of Planetary Probes in Atmospheric Flight

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lorenz, R. D.

    Probes that enter planetary atmospheres are often spun during entry or descent for a variety of reasons. Their spin rate histories are influenced by often subtle effects. The spin requirements, control methods and flight experience from planetary and earth entry missions are reviewed. An interaction of the probe aerodynamic wake with a drogue parachute, observed in Gemini wind tunnel tests, is discussed in connection with the anomalous spin behaviour of the Huygens probe.

  14. Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex): NASA's Next Human-Rated Testing Facility

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tri, Terry O.

    1999-01-01

    As a key component in its ground test bed capability, NASA's Advanced Life Support Program has been developing a large-scale advanced life support test facility capable of supporting long-duration evaluations of integrated bioregenerative life support systems with human test crews. This facility-targeted for evaluation of hypogravity compatible life support systems to be developed for use on planetary surfaces such as Mars or the Moon-is called the Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex) and is currently under development at the Johnson Space Center. This test bed is comprised of a set of interconnected chambers with a sealed internal environment which are outfitted with systems capable of supporting test crews of four individuals for periods exceeding one year. The advanced technology systems to be tested will consist of both biological and physicochemical components and will perform all required crew life support functions. This presentation provides a description of the proposed test "missions" to be supported by the BIO-Plex and the planned development strategy for the facility.

  15. Planetary Surface Instruments Workshop

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meyer, Charles (Editor); Treiman, Allan H. (Editor); Kostiuk, Theodor (Editor)

    1996-01-01

    This report on planetary surface investigations and planetary landers covers: (1) the precise chemical analysis of solids; (2) isotopes and evolved gas analyses; (3) planetary interiors; planetary atmospheres from within as measured by landers; (4) mineralogical examination of extraterrestrial bodies; (5) regoliths; and (6) field geology/processes.

  16. Confirming Planetary Mass Candidate Companions in Ophiuchus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fontanive, Clemence

    2016-10-01

    We propose for follow-up observations to confirm common proper motion for two candidate planetary mass companions, identified as part of our GO 12944 (PI Allers) search for companions to the youngest ( 0.5 Myr) brown dwarfs in the nearby Ophiuchus star-forming region. If confirmed to be co-moving, these would be among the lowest mass planetary mass companions imaged to date, with estimated masses <5 Jupiter Masses and would be vital benchmark objects for evolutionary models at these young ages. With our multi-band optical and IR photometric approach based on the SpT-Q relation seen for Ophiuchus brown dwarfs (Allers in prep.), we have already estimated the spectral type of our candidate companions. This approach distinguishes substellar objects from background interlopers based on the strength of the 1.4 um water feature robustly observed in MLTY objects but not in reddened background stars - both our candidates show clear evidence of absorption at 1.4 um. If confirmed, these candidate companions would significantly increase the census of young planetary mass companions around extremely young brown dwarfs. These candidate companions are too faint to be observed with ground-based laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) nor is the 1.4 um water feature observable from the ground for such faint objects due to telluric absorption, thus HST is the only telescope in the world suitable for these observations.

  17. The Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baratoux, D.; Chennaoui-Aoudjehane, H.; Gibson, R.; Lamali, A.; Reimold, W. U.; Selorm Sepah, M.; Chabou, M. C.; Habarulema, J. B.; Jessell, M.; Mogessie, A.; Benkhaldoun, Z.; Nkhonjera, E.; Mukosi, N. C.; Kaire, M.; Rochette, P.; Sickafoose, A.; Martínez-Frías, J.; Hofmann, A.; Folco, L.; Rossi, A. P.; Faye, G.; Kolenberg, K.; Tekle, K.; Belhai, D.; Elyajouri, M.; Koeberl, C.; Abdeem, M.

    2017-12-01

    Research groups in Planetary and Space Sciences (PSS) are now emerging in Africa, but remain few, scattered and underfunded. It is our conviction that the exclusion of 20% of the world's population from taking part in the fascinating discoveries about our solar system impoverishes global science. The benefits of a coordinated PSS program for Africa's youth have motivated a call for international support and investment [1] into an Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences. At the time of writing, the call has been endorsed by 230 scientists and 19 institutions or international organizations (follow the map of endorsements on https://africapss.org). More than 70 African Planetary scientists have already joined the initiative and about 150 researchers in non-African countries are ready to participate in research and in capacitity building of PSS programs in Africa. We will briefly review in this presentation the status of PSS in Africa [2] and illustrate some of the major achievements of African Planetary and Space scientists, including the search for meteorites or impact craters, the observations of exoplanets, and space weather investigations. We will then discuss a road map for its expansion, with an emphasis on the role that planetary and space scientists can play to support scientific and economic development in Africa. The initiative is conceived as a network of projects with Principal Investigators based in Africa. A Steering Committee is being constituted to coordinate these efforts and contribute to fund-raising and identification of potential private and public sponsors. The scientific strategy of each group within the network will be developed in cooperation with international experts, taking into account the local expertise, available equipment and facilities, and the priority needs to achieve well-identified scientific goals. Several founding events will be organized in 2018 in several African research centers and higher-education institutions to

  18. Eccentricity in planetary systems and the role of binarity. Sample definition, initial results, and the system of HD 211847

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moutou, C.; Vigan, A.; Mesa, D.; Desidera, S.; Thébault, P.; Zurlo, A.; Salter, G.

    2017-06-01

    We explore the multiplicity of exoplanet host stars with high-resolution images obtained with VLT/SPHERE. Two different samples of systems were observed: one containing low-eccentricity outer planets, and the other containing high-eccentricity outer planets. We find that 10 out of 34 stars in the high-eccentricity systems are members of a binary, while the proportion is 3 out of 27 for circular systems. Eccentric-exoplanet hosts are, therefore, significantly more likely to have a stellar companion than circular-exoplanet hosts. The median magnitude contrast over the 68 data sets is 11.26 and 9.25, in H and K, respectively, at 0.30 arcsec. The derived detection limits reveal that binaries with separations of less than 50 au are rarer for exoplanet hosts than for field stars. Our results also imply that the majority of high-eccentricity planets are not embedded in multiple stellar systems (24 out of 34), since our detection limits exclude the presence of a stellar companion. We detect the low-mass stellar companions of HD 7449 and HD 211847, both members of our high-eccentricity sample. HD 7449B was already detected and our independent observation is in agreement with this earlier work. HD 211847's substellar companion, previously detected by the radial velocity method, is actually a low-mass star seen face-on. The role of stellar multiplicity in shaping planetary systems is confirmed by this work, although it does not appear as the only source of dynamical excitation. Based on observations collected with SPHERE on the Very Large Telescope (ESO, Chile).

  19. Planetary geosciences, 1988

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zuber, Maria T. (Editor); Plescia, Jeff L. (Editor); James, Odette B. (Editor); Macpherson, Glenn (Editor)

    1989-01-01

    Research topics within the NASA Planetary Geosciences Program are presented. Activity in the fields of planetary geology, geophysics, materials, and geochemistry is covered. The investigator's current research efforts, the importance of that work in understanding a particular planetary geoscience problem, the context of that research, and the broader planetary geoscience effort is described. As an example, theoretical modelling of the stability of water ice within the Martian regolith, the applicability of that work to understanding Martian volatiles in general, and the geologic history of Mars is discussed.

  20. Spitzer DDT observations of the interstellar comet A/2017 U1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trilling, David; Hora, Joe; Mommert, Michael; Carey, Sean; Lisse, Carey; Werner, Mike; Chesley, Steve; Emery, Josh; Fazio, Giovanni; Fernandez, Yan; Harris, Alan; Marengo, Massimo; Mueller, Migo; Roegge, Alissa; Smith, Howard; Smith, Nathan; Weaver, Hal

    2017-11-01

    We propose to observe the newly discovered interstellar comet A/2017 U1 to measure its diameter and albedo. Little is known about this object, which presumably formed in another planetary system. This is the only opportunity *ever* to determine the albedo of this object, which will help us understand how planetary system formation in other systems compares to what occurred in our Solar System. The proposed observations -- requiring 32.6 hours in late November -- are the last telescopic observations that will ever be made of this object. The return from these proposed observations would be tremendous -- characterizing the first ever known object from beyond our Solar System. Because the object is faint and fading, these observations must be made as soon as possible.

  1. Shaping planetary nebulae with jets in inclined triple stellar systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akashi, Muhammad; Soker, Noam

    2017-08-01

    We conduct three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of two opposite jets launched obliquely to the orbital plane around an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star and within its dense wind, and demonstrate the formation of a 'messy' planetary nebula (PN), namely a PN lacking any type of symmetry (I.e. highly irregular). In building the initial conditions, we assume that a tight binary system orbits the AGB star and that the orbital plane of the tight binary system is inclined to the orbital plane of the binary system and the AGB star (the triple system plane). We further assume that the accreted mass on to the tight binary system forms an accretion disc around one of the stars and that the plane of the disc is tilted to the orbital plane of the triple system. The highly asymmetrical and filamentary structures that we obtain support the notion that messy PNe might be shaped by triple stellar systems.

  2. Arecibo Radar Investigations of Planetary and Small-Body Surfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Taylor, P. A.

    2016-12-01

    The 305-m William E. Gordon telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is the most sensitive, most powerful, and most active planetary radar facility in the world. Over the last 50-plus years, the S-band (12.6 cm, 2380 MHz) and P-band (70 cm, 430 MHz) radars at Arecibo have studied solid bodies in the solar system from Mercury to Saturn's rings. Radar provides fine spatial resolution of these bodies surpassed only by dedicated spacecraft while adding the extra dimensions of near-surface, wavelength-scale roughness and penetration to several wavelengths below the surface. For asteroids and comets, this spatial resolution is akin to a spacecraft flyby revealing spin, size, and shape information and geologic features such as ridges, crater-like depressions, and boulders. For planetary bodies, radar can reveal geologic features on the surface such as ancient lava flows or features buried beneath the regolith including lava tubes and water-ice deposits. We will present an overview of how the Arecibo radar systems are utilized in the study of planetary and small-body surfaces and what can be learned without ever leaving the comfort of Earth's surface. The Arecibo Observatory is operated by SRI International under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (AST-1100968) and in alliance with Ana G. Mendez-Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). The Arecibo Planetary Radar Program is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant Nos. NNX12AF24G and NNX13AQ46G issued through the Near-Earth Object Observations program and operated by USRA in alliance with SRI International and UMET.

  3. NASA's small planetary mission plan released

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jones, Richard M.

    A ten-page report just submitted to Congress outlines a new strategy for NASA planetary programs emphasizing small missions. If implemented, this plan would represent a shift away from large “flagship” missions that have characterized many programs of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.There are a number of reasons for this shift in strategy. The current NASA appropriations bill requires “a plan to stimulate and develop small planetary or other space science projects, emphasizing those which could be accomplished by the academic or research communities.” Budgetary realities make it more difficult to fly large missions. There is also concern about a “significant gap” in data from planetary missions between 1998 and 2004.

  4. Spice Tools Supporting Planetary Remote Sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Acton, C.; Bachman, N.; Semenov, B.; Wright, E.

    2016-06-01

    NASA's "SPICE"* ancillary information system has gradually become the de facto international standard for providing scientists the fundamental observation geometry needed to perform photogrammetry, map making and other kinds of planetary science data analysis. SPICE provides position and orientation ephemerides of both the robotic spacecraft and the target body; target body size and shape data; instrument mounting alignment and field-of-view geometry; reference frame specifications; and underlying time system conversions. SPICE comprises not only data, but also a large suite of software, known as the SPICE Toolkit, used to access those data and subsequently compute derived quantities-items such as instrument viewing latitude/longitude, lighting angles, altitude, etc. In existence since the days of the Magellan mission to Venus, the SPICE system has continuously grown to better meet the needs of scientists and engineers. For example, originally the SPICE Toolkit was offered only in Fortran 77, but is now available in C, IDL, MATLAB, and Java Native Interface. SPICE calculations were originally available only using APIs (subroutines), but can now be executed using a client-server interface to a geometry engine. Originally SPICE "products" were only available in numeric form, but now SPICE data visualization is also available. The SPICE components are free of cost, license and export restrictions. Substantial tutorials and programming lessons help new users learn to employ SPICE calculations in their own programs. The SPICE system is implemented and maintained by the Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF)-a component of NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). * Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, Camera-matrix, Events

  5. Support requirements for remote sensor systems on unmanned planetary missions, phase 3

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1971-01-01

    The results of a study to determine the support requirements for remote sensor systems on unmanned planetary flyby and orbiter missions are presented. Sensors and experiment groupings for selected missions are also established. Computer programs were developed to relate measurement requirements to support requirements. Support requirements were determined for sensors capable of performing required measurements at various points along the trajectories of specific selected missions.

  6. RESONANCES REQUIRED: DYNAMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 24 Sex AND HD 200964 PLANETARY SYSTEMS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wittenmyer, Robert A.; Horner, Jonathan; Tinney, C. G., E-mail: rob@phys.unsw.edu.au

    We perform several suites of highly detailed dynamical simulations to investigate the architectures of the 24 Sextantis and HD 200964 planetary systems. The best-fit orbital solution for the two planets in the 24 Sex system places them on orbits with periods that lie very close to 2:1 commensurability, while that for the HD 200964 system places the two planets therein in orbits whose periods lie close to a 4:3 commensurability. In both cases, the proposed best-fit orbits are mutually crossing-a scenario that is only dynamically feasible if the planets are protected from close encounters by the effects of mutual mean-motionmore » resonance (MMR). Our simulations reveal that the best-fit orbits for both systems lie within narrow islands of dynamical stability, and are surrounded by much larger regions of extreme instability. As such, we show that the planets are only feasible if they are currently trapped in mutual MMR-the 2:1 resonance in the case of 24 Sex b and c, and the 4:3 resonance in the case of HD 200964 b and c. In both cases, the region of stability is strongest and most pronounced when the planetary orbits are mutually coplanar. As the inclination of planet c with respect to planet b is increased, the stability of both systems rapidly collapses.« less

  7. The Planetary Data System - A Case Study in the Development and Management of Meta-Data for a Scientific Digital Library

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hughes, J.

    1998-01-01

    The Planetary Data System (PDS) is an active science data archive managed by scientists for NASA's planetary science community. With the advent of the World Wide Web the majority of the archive has been placed on-line as a science digital libraty for access by scientists, the educational community, and the general public.

  8. Identifying chemicals that are planetary boundary threats.

    PubMed

    MacLeod, Matthew; Breitholtz, Magnus; Cousins, Ian T; de Wit, Cynthia A; Persson, Linn M; Rudén, Christina; McLachlan, Michael S

    2014-10-07

    Rockström et al. proposed a set of planetary boundaries that delimit a "safe operating space for humanity". Many of the planetary boundaries that have so far been identified are determined by chemical agents. Other chemical pollution-related planetary boundaries likely exist, but are currently unknown. A chemical poses an unknown planetary boundary threat if it simultaneously fulfills three conditions: (1) it has an unknown disruptive effect on a vital Earth system process; (2) the disruptive effect is not discovered until it is a problem at the global scale, and (3) the effect is not readily reversible. In this paper, we outline scenarios in which chemicals could fulfill each of the three conditions, then use the scenarios as the basis to define chemical profiles that fit each scenario. The chemical profiles are defined in terms of the nature of the effect of the chemical and the nature of exposure of the environment to the chemical. Prioritization of chemicals in commerce against some of the profiles appears feasible, but there are considerable uncertainties and scientific challenges that must be addressed. Most challenging is prioritizing chemicals for their potential to have a currently unknown effect on a vital Earth system process. We conclude that the most effective strategy currently available to identify chemicals that are planetary boundary threats is prioritization against profiles defined in terms of environmental exposure combined with monitoring and study of the biogeochemical processes that underlie vital Earth system processes to identify currently unknown disruptive effects.

  9. Discovery of Low-ionization Envelopes in the Planetary Nebula NGC 5189: Spatially-resolved Diagnostics from HST Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Danehkar, Ashkbiz; Karovska, Margarita; Maksym, Walter Peter; Montez, Rodolfo

    2018-01-01

    The planetary nebula NGC 5189 shows one of the most spectacular morphological structures among planetary nebulae with [WR]-type central stars. Using high-angular resolution HST/WFC3 imaging, we discovered inner, low-ionization structures within a region of 0.3 parsec × 0.2 parsec around the central binary system. We used Hα, [O III], and [S II] emission line images to construct line-ratio diagnostic maps, which allowed us to spatially resolve two distinct low-ionization envelopes within the inner, ionized gaseous environment, extending over a distance of 0.15 pc from the central binary. Both the low-ionization envelopes appear to be expanding along a NE to SW symmetric axis. The SW envelope appears smaller than its NE counterpart. Our diagnostic maps show that highly-ionized gas surrounds these low-ionization envelopes, which also include filamentary and clumpy structures. These envelopes could be a result of a powerful outburst from the central interacting binary, when one of the companions (now a [WR] star) was in its AGB evolutionary stage, with a strong mass-loss generating dense circumstellar shells. Dense material ejected from the progenitor AGB star is likely heated up as it propagates along a symmetric axis into the previously expelled low-density material. Our new diagnostic methodology is a powerful tool for high-angular resolution mapping of low-ionization structures in other planetary nebulae with complex structures possibly caused by past outbursts from their progenitors.

  10. Vibration characteristics of two-stage planetary transmission system with thin-walled ring gear on elastic supports

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, JianYing; Hu, QingChun; Zong, ChangFu; Zhu, TianJun; Zhang, ZeXing

    2018-03-01

    A dual-clutch and dual-speed planetary gears mechanism of a hybrid car coupled-system is taken as research subject, in which the ring gear of planet set II is a thin-walled structure and the clutch friction plates of planet set II are used as its elastic supports. Based on the lumped parameter-rigid elastic coupled dynamic model of two-stage planetary transmission system with thin-walled ring gear on elastic supports, the motion differential equations are established and the dynamic responses are solved by the Runge-Kutta method considering each stage internal and external time-varying mesh stiffness. The vibration displacements of each stage ring gear have been affected differently in time-domain, the translational vibration displacement of the ring gear of planet set I are obviously more than the torsional vibration displacement, but it is opposite for the ring gear of planet set II; The translational and torsional vibration responses of each stage ring gear arrive the peak in low-frequency. The analysis results of this paper can enrich the theoretical research of multistage planetary transmission and provide guidance for dynamic design.

  11. Planetary Society

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Murdin, P.

    2000-11-01

    Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded the non-profit Planetary Society in 1979 to advance the exploration of the solar system and to continue the search for extraterrestrial life. The Society has its headquarters in Pasadena, California, but is international in scope, with 100 000 members worldwide, making it the largest space interest group in the world. The Society funds a var...

  12. An Observational Study of Pulsations in Proto-Planetary Nebulae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hrivnak, Bruce J.; Lu, Wenxian; Henson, Gary D.; Hillwig, Todd C.

    2016-01-01

    We have been carrying out a long-term monitoring program to study the light variability in proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe). PPNe are post-Asymptotic Giant Branch objects in transition between the AGB and PN phases in the evolution of low and intermediate-mass stars. As such, it is not surprising that they display pulsational variability. We have been carrying out photometric monitoring of 30 of these at the Valparaiso University campus observatory over the last 20 years, with the assistance of undergraduate students. The sample size has been enlarged over the past six years by observations made using telescopes in the SARA consortium at KPNO and CTIO. Periods have been determined for those of F-G spectral types. We have also enlarged the sample with PPNe from outside the Milky Way by determining periods of eight PPNe in the lower metalicity environment of the Magellanic Clouds. Periods for the entire sample range from 35 to 160 days. Some clear patterns have emerged, with those of higher temperature possessing shorter periods and smaller amplitudes, indicating a reduction in period and pulsation amplitude as the objects evolve. Radial velocity monitoring of several of the brightest of these has allowed us to document their changes in brightness, color, and size during a pulsation cycle. The results of this study will be presented. This research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (most recently AST 1413660), with additional student support from the Indiana Space Grant Consortium.

  13. Asteroidal and planetary analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartmann, W. K.

    1975-01-01

    Photometric, spectrophotometric, and radiometric investigations of asteroids and planets are reported. Profiles of the planetary disk were used to study the physical structure of the Uranus atmosphere, and thermal and photographic properties of Saturn rings were theoretically modelled. Ground-based Mars observations were made for long-term comparison with Mariner 9 results.

  14. Review on the Role of Planetary Factors on Habitability.

    PubMed

    Kereszturi, A; Noack, L

    2016-11-01

    In this work various factors on the habitability were considered, focusing on conditions irrespective of the central star's radiation, to see the role of specific planetary body related effects. These so called planetary factors were evaluated to identify those trans-domain issues where important information is missing but good chance exit to be filled by new knowledge that might be gained in the next decade(s). Among these strategic knowledge gaps, specific issues are listed, like occurrence of radioactive nucleides in star forming regions, models to estimate the existence of subsurface liquid water from bulk parameters plus evolutionary context of the given system, estimation on the existence of redox gradient depending on the environment type etc. These issues require substantial improvement of modelling and statistical handling of various cases, as "planetary environment types". Based on our current knowledge it is probable that subsurface habitability is at least as frequent, or more frequent than surface habitability. Unfortunately it is more difficult from observations to infer conditions for subsurface habitability, but specific argumentation might help with indirect ways, which might result in new methods to approach habitability in general.

  15. A bibliography of planetary geology principal investigators and their associates, 1976-1978

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1978-01-01

    This bibliography cites publications submitted by 484 principal investigators and their associates who were supported through NASA's Office of Space Sciences Planetary Geology Program. Subject classifications include: solar system formation, comets, and asteroids; planetary satellites, planetary interiors, geological and geochemical constraints on planetary evolution; impact crater studies, volcanism, eolian studies, fluvian studies, Mars geological mapping; Mercury geological mapping; planetary cartography; and instrument development and techniques. An author/editor index is provided.

  16. The cross-over to magnetostrophic convection in planetary dynamo systems.

    PubMed

    Aurnou, J M; King, E M

    2017-03-01

    Global scale magnetostrophic balance, in which Lorentz and Coriolis forces comprise the leading-order force balance, has long been thought to describe the natural state of planetary dynamo systems. This argument arises from consideration of the linear theory of rotating magnetoconvection. Here we test this long-held tenet by directly comparing linear predictions against dynamo modelling results. This comparison shows that dynamo modelling results are not typically in the global magnetostrophic state predicted by linear theory. Then, in order to estimate at what scale (if any) magnetostrophic balance will arise in nonlinear dynamo systems, we carry out a simple scaling analysis of the Elsasser number Λ , yielding an improved estimate of the ratio of Lorentz and Coriolis forces. From this, we deduce that there is a magnetostrophic cross-over length scale, [Formula: see text], where Λ o is the linear (or traditional) Elsasser number, Rm o is the system scale magnetic Reynolds number and D is the length scale of the system. On scales well above [Formula: see text], magnetostrophic convection dynamics should not be possible. Only on scales smaller than [Formula: see text] should it be possible for the convective behaviours to follow the predictions for the magnetostrophic branch of convection. Because [Formula: see text] is significantly smaller than the system scale in most dynamo models, their large-scale flows should be quasi-geostrophic, as is confirmed in many dynamo simulations. Estimating Λ o ≃1 and Rm o ≃10 3 in Earth's core, the cross-over scale is approximately 1/1000 that of the system scale, suggesting that magnetostrophic convection dynamics exists in the core only on small scales below those that can be characterized by geomagnetic observations.

  17. HESS Opinions: A planetary boundary on freshwater use is misleading

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heistermann, Maik

    2017-07-01

    In 2009, a group of prominent Earth scientists introduced the planetary boundaries (PB) framework: they suggested nine global control variables, and defined corresponding thresholds which, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental change. The concept builds on systems theory, and views Earth as a complex adaptive system in which anthropogenic disturbances may trigger non-linear, abrupt, and irreversible changes at the global scale, and push the Earth system outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene. While the idea has been remarkably successful in both science and policy circles, it has also raised fundamental concerns, as the majority of suggested processes and their corresponding planetary boundaries do not operate at the global scale, and thus apparently lack the potential to trigger abrupt planetary changes. This paper picks up the debate with specific regard to the planetary boundary on global freshwater use. While the bio-physical impacts of excessive water consumption are typically confined to the river basin scale, the PB proponents argue that water-induced environmental disasters could build up to planetary-scale feedbacks and system failures. So far, however, no evidence has been presented to corroborate that hypothesis. Furthermore, no coherent approach has been presented to what extent a planetary threshold value could reflect the risk of regional environmental disaster. To be sure, the PB framework was revised in 2015, extending the planetary freshwater boundary with a set of basin-level boundaries inferred from environmental water flow assumptions. Yet, no new evidence was presented, either with respect to the ability of those basin-level boundaries to reflect the risk of regional regime shifts or with respect to a potential mechanism linking river basins to the planetary scale. So while the idea of a planetary boundary on freshwater use appears intriguing, the line of arguments presented so far

  18. Channel coding and data compression system considerations for efficient communication of planetary imaging data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rice, R. F.

    1974-01-01

    End-to-end system considerations involving channel coding and data compression are reported which could drastically improve the efficiency in communicating pictorial information from future planetary spacecraft. In addition to presenting new and potentially significant system considerations, this report attempts to fill a need for a comprehensive tutorial which makes much of this very subject accessible to readers whose disciplines lie outside of communication theory.

  19. Planetary spectra for anisotropic scattering

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chamberlain, J. W.

    1976-01-01

    Some effects on planetary spectra that would be produced by departures from isotropic scattering are examined. The phase function is the simplest departure to handle analytically and the only phase function, other than the isotropic one, that can be incorporated into a Chandrasekhar first approximation. This approach has the advantage of illustrating effects resulting from anisotropies while retaining the simplicity that yields analytic solutions. The curve of growth is the sine qua non of planetary spectroscopy. The discussion emphasizes the difficulties and importance of ascertaining curves of growth as functions of observing geometry. A plea is made to observers to analyze their empirical curves of growth, whenever it seems feasible, in terms of coefficients of which are the leading terms in radiative-transfer analysis. An algebraic solution to the two sets of anisotropic H functions is developed which gives emergent intensities accurate to 0.3%.

  20. Faint-Source-Star Planetary Microlensing: The Discovery of the Cold Gas-Giant Planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rattenbury, N. J.; Bennett, D. P.; Sumi, T.; Koshimoto, N.; Bond, I. A.; Udalski, A.; Shvartzvald, Y.; Maoz, D.; Jorgensen, U. G.; Barry, R.; hide

    2016-01-01

    We report the discovery of a planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb via gravitational microlensing. Observations for the lensing event were made by the following groups: Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics; Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment; Wise Observatory; RoboNETLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope; Microlensing Network for the Detection of Small Terrestrial Exoplanets; and -FUN. All analyses of the light-curve data favoura lens system comprising a planetary mass orbiting a host star. The most-favoured binary lens model has a mass ratio between the two lens masses of (4.78 +/- 0.13) 10(exp -3). Subject to some important assumptions, a Bayesian probability density analysis suggests the lens system comprises a 3.09(+1.02/-1.12) MJ planet orbiting a 0.62(+0.20/-0.22) solar mass host star at a deprojected orbital separation of 4.40(+2.16/-1.46) au. The distance to the lens system is 2.22(+0.96/-0.83) kpc. Planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb provides additional data to the growing number of cool planets discover redusing gravitational microlensing against which planetary formation theories may be tested. Most of the light in the baseline of this event is expected to come from the lens and thus high-resolution imaging observations could confirm our planetary model interpretation.