Showing papers in "Planetary and Space Science in 2011"

TL;DR: The ArcMap toolbar CraterTools developed in this context significantly helps to improve and simplify the crater size-frequency (CSF) measurement process as discussed by the authors, which can also be theoretically transferred to every Geographic Information System (GIS) capable of working with different map projections.

TL;DR: In this article, a general overview of modern optical studies of the Moon and their diagnostic meaning is presented, including phase photometry, spectrophotometry, and polarimetry.

TL;DR: In this article, a global geologic map of Venus at a scale of 1:10m was compiled using Magellan radar image and altimetry data, supplemented by Venera-15/16 radar images.

TL;DR: A rich set of new measurements has greatly expanded our understanding of the Moon-plasma interaction over the last sixteen years, and helped demonstrate the fundamentally kinetic nature of many aspects thereof.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the electric field strength required to launch small particles given surface gravitation, cohesion and seismic shaking and find that the electric force required for dust particle launching is dominated by the cohesive force for micron-sized dust particles.

TL;DR: In this paper, a global survey of candidate pyroclastic deposits on Mercury, derived from images obtained during MESSENGER flybys 1-3 that provided near-global coverage at resolutions between 5 and 0.5 km/pixel, was presented.

TL;DR: In this article, the strongest methane band in the short wavelength channel of the PFS on board ESA Mars Express (MeX) spacecraft was analyzed and the optical line depth was used to derive the column density of methane.

TL;DR: The LADEE mission is scheduled to launch in early 2013 as discussed by the authors, where the highly sensitive Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) onboard the LADSEE mission will shed new light on the lunar dust environment.

TL;DR: In this article, a dipolarization front associated with a bursty bulk flow (BBF) was observed in the central plasma sheet sequentially at X=−20.1, −16.7, and −11.0RE.

TL;DR: The MESSENGER Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) measured the bulk plasma characteristics of Mercury's magnetosphere and solar wind environment during the spacecraft's first two flybys of the planet on 14 January 2008 (M1) and 6 October 2008(M2) as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: The process of identifying the landing site for NASA's 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) began in 2005 by defining science objectives related to evaluating the potential habitability of a location on Mars, and engineering parameters, such as elevation, latitude, winds, and rock abundance, to determine acceptable surface and atmospheric characteristics.

TL;DR: In this article, a study of the landslides in Valles Marineris based on their physical aspect is presented and the velocity of the landslide is calculated with a stretching block model.

TL;DR: The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) as mentioned in this paper was used in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) analytical chemistry suite on NASA s 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.

TL;DR: The origin of Mercury's anomalous core and low FeO surface mineralogy are outstanding questions in planetary science as mentioned in this paper, which may result from cosmochemical controls on the precursor solids that accreted to form Mercury.

TL;DR: The primary crater population on Mercury has been modified by volcanism and secondary craters, and two phases of volcanism are recognized as mentioned in this paper, one volcanic episode that produced widespread intercrater plains occurred during the period of the Late Heavy Bombardment and markedly altered the surface in many areas.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reanalyzed the Apollo 15 orbital sunset sequence by incorporating the known sightline geometries in a Mie-scattering simulation code, and then inverting the measured intensities to retrieve exospheric dust concentration as a function of altitude and distance from the terminator.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how to estimate the electrons produced by photo-charged dust, which is then used to predict electron concentrations from exospheric dust distribution models that are based on the "excess brightness" observed in Apollo 15 coronal photographs.

TL;DR: Flat-floored depressions with scalloped-shapes and spatially associated small-sized polygons (diameter diameter) as mentioned in this paper are a type of small-scale polygons.

TL;DR: From photogrammetric analysis of stereo images of Mercury obtained during three MESSENGER flybys, this article produced three digital terrain models that have a grid spacing of 1 km and together cover 30% of the planet's surface.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the habitability and traces of past life in ∼3.5 Ga-old volcanic sands deposited in littoral environments an analogue to Noachian environments on Mars, and recommended the return of samples from Mars to Earth for a definitive search for traces of life.

TL;DR: In this article, the formation and evolution of the soil and dust of the Moon were studied. But the fundamental question of the interactions of space with the surface of an airless body was not addressed.

TL;DR: In this article, the role of photoelectrons as tracers of the magnetic connection to the dayside ionosphere, and their possible role in enhancing ion escape is discussed, and in particular show examples of their observation at remote locations from their production point in the daysides ionosphere.

TL;DR: Calculated thermal mass loss calculations indicate that hydrogen-rich gas giants within the mass domain of Saturn or Jupiter cannot thermally lose such an amount of mass that CoRoT-7b and Kepler-10b would result in a rocky residue.

TL;DR: In this paper, a minimum variance analysis of the circular mapping data from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft during four selected weeks of observation was performed to identify 360 magnetic field structures in the Martian topside ionosphere with characteristic signatures of flux ropes.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a crater age determination of several terrains associated with the Raditladi and Rachmaninoff basins, which were discovered during the first and third MESSENGER flybys of Mercury, respectively.

TL;DR: The new MA130301GT catalogue presented in this paper is the result of the overall merger of MA115225GT and MA75919T and contains 85 783 such craters, while the smallest D is 0.924 km, a considerable improvement in comparison with the completeness of the Rodionova, Barlow, and Stepinski catalogues.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented magnetic field and plasma data of the first pass of the spacecraft P1 of the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun) mission passed the lunar wake for the first time on February 13, 2010.

TL;DR: In this article, the suprathermal tail is used as a tool to diagnose the processes responsible for particle energisation in collisionless plasmas, which is a key indicator of the non-equilibrium nature of collisions and an important source of free energy that can drive plasma processes.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the spectral properties of the PFS and TES data are consistent with tectosilicates, especially feldspars/feldspathoids, particularly in the area northeast of Stickney.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore aspects of these analogues and demonstrate the importance of a number of key dimensionless parameters, most notably thermal Rossby and Rhines numbers and a measure of the dominant frictional or radiative timescale, in defining the type of circulation regime to be expected in a prototype planetary atmosphere subject to axisymmetric driving.