The structure of Neptune's upper atmosphere: The stellar occultation of 24 May 1981 |
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| Authors: | Richard G French Jonathan H Elias Douglas J Mink JL Elliot |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;2. Department of Astronomy, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 02181, USA;3. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, La Serena, Chile;4. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA |
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| Abstract: | Observations of the 24 May 1981 occultation of an uncatalogued star by Neptune made at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have been analyzed to yield temperature profiles of Neptune's upper atmosphere for number densities near 5 × 1013 cm?3. The mean temperatures at immersion (latitude ?56°) and emersion (latitude ?16°) obtained by numerical inversion were 140 ± 10°K and 154 ± 10°K, respectively. The immersion and emersion profiles are remarkably similar in overall shape, suggestive of global atmospheric layering. From the astrometry of the event, precise relative positions of Neptune and the occulted were obtained. |
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