Publication Date:
2019-06-27
Description:
Toward the end of 1973 and in the first part of 1974, when the planes of the orbits of the four large Galilean satellites cross the sun and the earth, satellite-satellite eclipses and occultations will occur. Calculations indicate that during this period 350 such events will occur, most of them potentially observable. From observation of a few of these events the ephemerides of the satellites can be improved, radii and limb darkening curves determined, and crude information about the degree and extent of albedo fluctuations deduced. If a concerted effort were made and a large fraction of these events carefully observed, it would be possible to invert the light curves to obtain albedo maps of most of the surface area at a typical resolution of about 100 km for JI and JII and somewhat poorer for JIII and JIV.
Keywords:
SPACE SCIENCES
Type:
Icarus; 19; May 1973
Format:
text
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