Showing papers in "Icarus in 2008"

TL;DR: In this article, Tsiganis et al. explore the origin and orbital evolution of the Kuiper belt in the framework of a recent model of the dynamical evolution of giant planets, sometimes known as the Nice model.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a buffered crater counting technique to estimate the age of the last activity in a valley network independent of the mapping of specific geological units, and they found that valley networks cluster into two subdivisions in terms of characteristics and age.

TL;DR: A catalog of 210 open-basin lakes (lakes with outlet valleys) fed by valley networks showed that they are widely distributed in the Noachian uplands of Mars as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this paper, a more physically correct treatment that takes account of the necessity of preventing particles from interpenetrating is used together with the two-stream approximation to solve the radiative transfer equation and derive improved expressions for the bidirectional and directional-hemispherical reflectances.

TL;DR: In this article, a large number of longitudinal dunes have been discovered by the Titan Radar Mapper on the surface of Titan and they are found mainly within ±30° of the equator in optically-, near-infrared-, and radar-dark regions, indicating a strong proportion of organics.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors define 37 statistically robust asteroid families with at least 100 members (12 families have over 1000 members) using a simple Gaussian distribution model in both orbital and color space and show that the separation of family members from background interlopers can be improved with the aid of SDSS colors as a qualifier for family membership.

TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that strong zonal winds are confined to shallow, stably stratified layers, with equatorial jets being the possible exception, and the magnetic Reynolds number based on the zonal wind velocity and the scale height of the magnetic diffusivity is of order unity.

TL;DR: In this paper, a series of self-consistent convection and conduction models in 2D axisymmetric and 3D spherical geometry are presented, in which they include the spatially variable tidal heat production.

TL;DR: The Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) as mentioned in this paper is a basaltic Mars simulant that is available as whole rocks, sand and dust, mined from the Tertiary Tropico Group in the western Mojave Desert.

TL;DR: In this article, the geology of the north polar plateau on Mars, Planum Boreum and the surrounding plains of Vastitas Borealis using altimetry and image data along with thematic maps resulting from observations made by the Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

TL;DR: The first global map of the Moon's magnetic field was obtained by the Lunar Prospector Electron Reflectometer (LPE) as mentioned in this paper, revealing that basin-forming impacts dominate the large-scale distribution of remanent magnetic fields on the Moon.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the heavy bombardment period on the Moon and Mars evolved similarly, but endogenic processes have removed the oldest martian basin record and no martian surfaces are older than 4.15 Ga based on crater count statistics.

TL;DR: In this paper, the first-order UV Raman bands of the disordered carbonaceous materials point to a large contribution of sp2 clusters present compared with olefinic CN or CC groupings, whereas features at 690 and 980 cm−1 suggest C3N3 rings are present as a species inserted in the macromolecular network.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors search 101 Classical transneptunian objects for companions with the Hubble Space Telescope and find a very strong anticorrelation of binaries with inclination, and only 1 of these is a similar-brightness binary.

TL;DR: Bottke et al. as mentioned in this paper estimate the impact flux and cratering rate as a function of latitude on the terrestrial planets using a model distribution of planet crossing asteroids and comets, assuming the projectiles follow hyperbolic paths during the encounter phase.

TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed study of the mineralogy derived from OMEGA spectral data and geology derived from HRSC imager and other datasets leads to some straightforward issues: the monohydrated sulfate kieserite is found mainly over heavily eroded scarps of light toned material and it likely corresponds to a mineral present in the initial rock formed either during formation and diagenesis of sediments, or during hydrothermal alteration at depth.

TL;DR: The composite infrared radiometer-Spectrometer (CIRS) on the NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter has been acquiring thermal emission spectra from the atmosphere of Titan since orbit insertion in 2004 as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The spectral variability in some dune regions shows that there are sand-free interdune areas, wherein VIMS spectra reveal the exposed dune substrate as discussed by the authors, and the presence of interdunes indicates that Titan's dunefields are both mature and recently active.

TL;DR: In this paper, the shape of phase light curves in the visible and near-IR spectrum was used to discriminate between Earth-like planets with surface oceans and those without using the shape.

TL;DR: The observed distribution appears to be controlled by the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect as mentioned in this paper, and the magnitude of the excess of slow rotators is related to the residence time of slowed down asteroids in the excess and the rate of spin rate change outside the excess.

TL;DR: In this article, 3D simulations of basin-scale lunar impacts are carried out to investigate the origins of strong crustal magnetic fields and unusual terrain observed to occur in regions antipodal to young large basins, and the origin of enhanced magnetic and geochemical anomalies along the northwest periphery of the South Pole-Aitken basin.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the effect of a low-viscosity anomaly in the ice shell, localized to the south polar region, on the tidal dissipation patterns and demonstrate that only interior models with a liquid water layer at depth can explain the observed magnitude of dissipation rate and its particular location at the south pole.

TL;DR: Ito and Tanikawa as mentioned in this paper performed a statistical analysis over more than 1001 different integrations of the secular equations over 5 Gyr and obtained that the probability of the eccentricity of Mercury to increase beyond 0.6 in 5Gyr is about 1 to 2%, which is relatively large.

TL;DR: Canup et al. as mentioned in this paper explored the effects of pre-impact rotation on impact outcomes through more than 100 hydrodynamical simulations that consider a range of impactor masses, impact angles and impact speeds.

TL;DR: In this article, a statistical analysis of the impact ionisation mass spectra of Enceladus' E-ring particles is presented, which supports the hypothesis of a dynamic interaction of the moon's rocky core with liquid water.

TL;DR: Using a meteor orbit radar, a total of more than 2.5 million meteoroids with masses ∼10−7 kg have had orbits measured in the interval 2002-2006 as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the impact data obtained during two shallow and 6 steep crossings of the orbit of the dominant ring source Enceladus to establish a 2D model for the ring particle distribution which matches their observations during vertical and equatorial traversals through the E ring.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed position uncertainty intervals to compensate for this by characterizing the minimum and maximum effect of physical parameters on the trajectory of Apophis' trajectory, and found no future small-body encounters likely to yield an apophis mass determination prior to 2029.

TL;DR: In this paper, the real and imaginary parts of the index of refraction of amorphous and crystalline H2O-ice from 20 to 150 K in the frequency range 9000−3800 cm−1 (1.1−2.6 μm).

TL;DR: In this article, numerical dynamo models in rotating spherical shells with a stable outer region are presented. But the model is restricted to the case where the magnetic field is unusually weak in the case of Mercury and unusually axisymmetric at Saturn and the control parameters are chosen such that the magnetic Reynolds number is in the range of expected Mercury values.