Mass and interior of Enceladus from Cassini data analysis |
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Authors: | Nicole J. Rappaport Luciano Iess Aseel Anabtawi Lucia Somenzi |
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Affiliation: | a Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA b Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale ed Astronautica, Universita' La Sapienza, I-00184 Rome, Italy c DIEM-II Facolta' di Ingegneria, Universita' di Bologna, I-47100 Forli, Italy |
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Abstract: | Gravity results are available from radio Doppler data acquired by the Deep Space Network during the encounter of the Cassini spacecraft with Enceladus in February 2005. We report the mass of Enceladus to be (1.0798±0.0016)×1020 kg, which implies a density of . For a core made of hydrated silicates with a density of 2500 kg m−3 the core radius is ∼190 km and the quadrupole moment C22∼1.4×10−3. If Enceladus is in hydrostatic equilibrium, the larger than previously anticipated density implies that the recently proposed secondary spin-orbit resonance cannot be present. Therefore, the source of endogenic activity of Enceladus remains unexplained. |
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Keywords: | Saturn, satellites Interiors |
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