Updated IAA RAS planetary ephemerides-EPM2011 and their use in scientific research

The EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon) numerical ephemerides were first created in the 1970s in support of Russian space flight missions and since then have been constantly improved at IAA RAS. In the following work, the latest version of the planetary part of the EPM2011 numerical ephemerides is presented. The EPM2011 ephemerides are computed using an updated dynamical model, new values of the parameters, and an extended observation database that contains about 680000 positional measurements of various types obtained from 1913 to 2011. The dynamical model takes into account mutual perturbations of the major planets, the Sun, the Moon, 301 massive asteroids, and 21 of the largest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), as well as perturbations from the other main-belt asteroids and other TNOs. The EPM ephemerides are computed by numerical integration of the equations of motion of celestial bodies in the parameterized post-Newtonian n-body metric in the BCRS coordinate system for the TDB time scale over a 400-year interval. The ephemerides were oriented to the ICRF system using 213 VLBI observations (taken from 1989 to 2010) of spacecraft near planets with background quasars, the coordinates of which are given in the ICRF system. The accuracy of the constructed ephemerides was verified by comparison with observations and the JPL independent ephemerides DE424. The EPM ephemerides are used in astronavigation (they form the basis of the Astronomical Yearbook and are planned to be utilized in GLONASS and LUNA-RESURS programs) and various research, including the estimation of the solar oblateness, the parameters of the rotation of Mars, and the total mass of the asteroid main belt and TNOs, as well as the verification of general relativity, the secular variations of the Sun’s mass and the gravitational constant, and the limits on the dark matter density in the Solar System. The EPM ephemerides, together with the corresponding time differences TT — TDB and the coordinates of seven additional objects (Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna), are available at ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM.     

High-Precision Ephemerides of Planets—EPM and Determination of Some Astronomical Constants

The latest version of the planetary part of the numerical ephemerides EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon) developed at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences is presented. The ephemerides of planets and the Moon were constructed by numerical integration in the post-Newtonian metric over a 140-year interval (from 1880 to 2020). The dynamical model of EPM2004 ephemerides includes the mutual perturbations from major planets and the Moon computed in terms of General Relativity with allowance for effects due to lunar physical libration, perturbations from 301 big asteroids, and dynamic perturbations due to the solar oblateness and the massive asteroid ring with uniform mass distribution in the plane of the ecliptic. The EPM2004 ephemerides resulted from a least-squares adjustment to more than 317000 position observations (1913–2003) of various types, including radiometric measurements of planets and spacecraft, CCD astrometric observations of the outer planets and their satellites, and meridian and photographic observations. The high-precision ephemerides constructed made it possible to determine, from modern radiometric measurements, a wide range of astrometric constants, including the astronomical unit AU = (149597870.6960 ± 0.0001) km, parameters of the rotation of Mars, the masses of the biggest asteroids, the solar quadrupole moment J ₂ = (1.9 ± 0.3) × 10⁻⁷, and the parameters of the PPN formalism β and γ. Also given is a brief summary of the available state-of-the-art ephemerides with the same precision: various versions of EPM and DE ephemerides from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (USA) and the recent versions of these ephemerides—EPM2004 and DE410—are compared. EPM2004 ephemerides are available via FTP at ftp://qua-sar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM2004.__________Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2005, pp. 202–213.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Pitjeva.     

Meridiankreis-Beobachtungen von Planeten 1950 bis 1955

The positions observed at the meridian circle of the observatory Munich in the years 1950-1955 and their deviations from the ephemerides are given for the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptun, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta.     

The planetary masses and the orbits of the first four minor planets

Numerical tests are the basis of a study about the effects caused in the orbits of the planets (1)–(4) by possible errors in the system of planetary masses. The masses of five major and three minor planets are considered. Especially, the effects caused by (1) Ceres in the orbit of (2) Pallas since the time of discovery are found to be large enough for a determination of the mass of Ceres. A first result for this mass is (6.7±0.4)×10^–10 solar masses.     

Development of planetary ephemerides EPM and their applications

This paper outlines the progress in development of the numerical planet ephemerides EPM—Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon. EPM was first created in the 1970s in support of Russian space flight missions and constantly improved at IAA RAS. Comparison between various available EPM ephemerides (EPM2004, EPM2008, EPM2011) is shown. The first results of the updated EPM2013 version which takes into account the two-dimensional annulus of small asteroids are presented. Currently two main factors drive the progress of planet ephemerides: dynamical models of planet motion and observational data, with the crucial role of spacecraft ranging. EPM ephemerides are the basis for the Russian Astronomical and Nautical Astronomical Yearbooks, are planned to use in the GLONASS and LUNA-RESOURCE programs, and are being used for determination of physical parameters: masses of asteroids, planet rotation parameters and topography, the \(GM_\odot \) and its secular variation, the PPN parameters, and the upper limit on the mass of dark matter in the Solar System. The files containing polynomial approximation for EPM ephemerides (EPM2004, EPM2008, EPM2011) along with TT–TDB and ephemerides of Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna are available from ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM/. Files are provided in IAA’s binary and ASCII formats, as well as in the SPK format.     

Orientation of the hipparcos frame with respect to the reference frames of the DE403/LE403 and DE405/LE405 ephemerides based on asteroid observations

Highly accurate observations of 116 asteroids are used to determine the orientation of the Hipparcos frame with respect to the reference frames of the DE403/LE403 and DE405/LE405 majorplanet ephemerides. These observations include the photographic observations of 15 asteroids obtained as part of the programs for observing selected asteroids and reduced to the Hipparcos frame using dependences, the space observations of 48 asteroids obtained by the Hipparcos satellite, and the presentday observations of 116 asteroid performed in the frame of the ACT catlog. The total number of observations used is more than 50 000 in the interval 1949–2007. Processing this series has yielded the following estimates of the orientation parameters: ω _x = 0.12 ± 0.08 mas yr^?1, ω _y = 0.66 ± 0.09 mas yr^?1, and ω _z = ?0.56 ± 0.16 mas yr^?1. This rotation may be attributable to a peculiarity of the transition from the reference frame of the DE200/LE200 ephemerides to that of DE403/LE403 ephemerides (since October 1, 1988, to J2000) that consists in the the assumption that the former reference frame has no rotation relative to the ICRF.     

IERS1996规范在参考系方面的改进

对ＩＥＲＳ１９９６规范中有关参考系方面作了简单而系统的介绍，重点叙述了与ＩＥＲＳ１９９２标准相比ＩＥＲＳ１９９６规范在参考系方面的主要改进：天球参考架中的基本源从５７颗增加到２３６颗；动力学参考架采用ＪＰＬ ＤＥ４０３／ＬＥ４０３历表代替ＤＥ２００／ＬＥ２００历表；采用ＮＵＶＥＬ ＮＮＲ－１Ａ板块运动模型代替ＮＵＶＥＬ ＮＮＲ－１模型；变更了９个基本常数值；给出了天极坐标的观测和理论间差的经验模型     

Russian lunar ephemeris EPM-ERA 2012

The paper describes the lunar ephemeris EPM-ERA 2012. It is a part of the Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon (EPM) developed at the Institute of Applied Astronomy (IAA) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). In order to construct EPM-ERA 2012, 17580 lunar laser ranging (LLR) observations for 1970–2012 have been processed including 21 observations from the Lunokhod 1 reflector found by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) at the end of 2010. EPM-ERA 2012 is compared with American ephemerides DE403, DE405, DE421 ephemeris, and the French ephemeris INPOP10. The possibility of the use of the ephemeris EPM-ERA 2012 to address contemporary problems of ephemeris astronomy is considered.     

Electromagnetic heating of minor planets in the early solar system

Electromagnetic processes occurring in the primordial solar system are likely to have significantly affected planetary evolution. In particular, electrical coupling of the kinetic energy of a dense T-Tauri-like solar wind into the interior of the smaller planets could have been a major driver of thermal metamorphism. Accordingly a grid of asteroid models of various sizes and solar distances was constructed using dc transverse magnetic induction theory. Plausible parameterizations with no requirement for a high environmental temperature led to complete melting for Vesta (and others with sizes down to 50 km diameter and distance out to 2.8 AU thus approximately reproducing the observed distributions of S objects) with no melting for Pallas and Ceres. Fairly high temperatures were reached in the Pallas model, perhaps implying nonmelting thermal metamorphosis as a cause of its anomalous spectrum (somewhat similar to but distinct from C type). A reversal of this temperature sequence seems implausible, suggesting that the Ceres-Pallas-Vesta dichotomy is a natural outcome of the induction mechanism. Highly localized heating is expected to arise due to an instability in the temperature-controlled current distribution. Localized metamorphosis resulting from this effect may be relevant to the production and evolution of pallasites, the large presumed metal component of S object spectra, and the formation of the lunar magma ocean.     

New approach to determining planetary perturbations in lunar theory

The technique of the general planetary theory has been proposed for constructing a theory of motion of the Moon. This method enables us to elaborate the consistent theory of motion of the principal planets and the Moon, which is of particular importance for determining planetary perturbations in lunar motion. As an initial approximation for lunar motion, an intermediate orbit generalizing the Hill's variational curve has been built. This orbit includes all solar and planetary inequalities independent of eccentricities and inclinations of the Moon, Sun and planets. In calculating this orbit, the motion of the principal planets in quasi-periodic intermediate orbits has been taken into account. This solution was produced with the aid of the Universal Poissonian Processor (UPP) elaborated in the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (Leningrad).Proceedings of the Conference on Analytical Methods and Ephemerides: Theory and Observations of the Moon and Planets. Facultés universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgium, 28–31 July, 1980.     

On the precession expressions based on the de ephemeris

Since 1984, the new IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants has become effective; meanwhile, the new lunar and planetary ephemerides (DE200/LE200) have been introduced into the Astronomical Almanac. In order to obtain the best fit of these ephemerides to the observational data, some modifications to the constants were made (Kaplan 1961). The modified values of these constants have been accepted by many users (particularly in the Merit Project), (Melbourne et al. 1983), although there has not been any new resolution of IAU. To avoid these inconsistencies, it seems to be necessary to rediscuss the adopted value of some astronomical constants in the new system. This paper discusses the problems for selection of the precession quantities and derives the precession expressions based on the motion of ecliptic from the DE ephemeris.     

The secular acceleration of the Moon determined from lunar laser ranging data

Lunar Laser Ranging data covering the interval from August 1969 to December 1987 were used to determine the seculer acceleration in the mean longitude of the Moon (\.n). In our analysis, the DE200/LE200 planets and lunar ephemerides were adopted for calculating the theoretical distance between the observing station and reflector. The method of stepwise regression was used in the processing of the data and the value of –25.4 ± 0. 1/cy² was obtained by a weighted least squares fit.Our result is in good agreement with that derived by other authors using various methods. The uncertainty (\.n) estimated from LLR data would be decreasing rapidly with increasing the data span. The high precision obtained in this paper is mainly due to the longer span and higher measuring accuracy of data.     

Relativistic effects and solar oblateness from radar observations of planets and spacecraft

We used more than 250 000 high-precision American and Russian radar observations of the inner planets and spacecraft obtained in the period 1961–2003 to test the relativistic parameters and to estimate the solar oblateness. Our analysis of the observations was based on the EPM ephemerides of the Institute of Applied Astronomy, Russian Academy of Sciences, constructed by the simultaneous numerical integration of the equations of motion for the nine major planets, the Sun, and the Moon in the post-Newtonian approximation. The gravitational noise introduced by asteroids into the orbits of the inner planets was reduced significantly by including 301 large asteroids and the perturbations from the massive ring of small asteroids in the simultaneous integration of the equations of motion. Since the post-Newtonian parameters and the solar oblateness produce various secular and periodic effects in the orbital elements of all planets, these were estimated from the simultaneous solution: the post-Newtonian parameters are β = 1.0000 ± 0.0001 and γ = 0.9999 ± 0.0002, the gravitational quadrupole moment of the Sun is J₂ = (1.9 ± 0.3) × 10^?7, and the variation of the gravitational constant is ?/G = (?2 ± 5) × 10^?14 yr^?1. The results obtained show a remarkable correspondence of the planetary motions and the propagation of light to General Relativity and narrow significantly the range of possible values for alternative theories of gravitation.     

Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres

The initial exploration of any planetary object requires a careful mission design guided by our knowledge of that object as gained by terrestrial observers. This process is very evident in the development of the Dawn mission to the minor planets 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta. This mission was designed to verify the basaltic nature of Vesta inferred both from its reflectance spectrum and from the composition of the howardite, eucrite and diogenite meteorites believed to have originated on Vesta. Hubble Space Telescope observations have determined Vesta’s size and shape, which, together with masses inferred from gravitational perturbations, have provided estimates of its density. These investigations have enabled the Dawn team to choose the appropriate instrumentation and to design its orbital operations at Vesta. Until recently Ceres has remained more of an enigma. Adaptive-optics and HST observations now have provided data from which we can begin to confidently plan the mission. These observations reveal a rotationally symmetric body with little surface relief, an ultraviolet bright point that can be used as a control point for determining the pole and anchoring a geographic coordinate system. They also reveal albedo and color variations that provide tantalizing hints of surface processes.     

A population of Main Belt Asteroids co-orbiting with Ceres and Vesta

We have carried out a search for Main Belt Asteroids (MBAs) co-orbiting with the large MBA Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Through improving the search criteria used in Christou (Christou, A.A. [2000b]. Astron. Astrophys. 356, L71–L74) and numerical integrations of candidate coorbitals, we have identified approximately 51 (44) objects currently in co-orbital libration with Ceres (Vesta). We show that these form part of a larger population of transient coorbitals; 129 (94) MBAs undergo episodes of co-orbital libration with Ceres (Vesta) within a 2 Myr interval centred on the present. The lifetime in the resonance is typically a few times ～10⁵ yr but can exceed 2 × 10⁶ yr. The variational properties of the orbits of several co-orbitals were examined. It was found that their present states with respect to the secondary are well determined but knowledge of it is lost typically after ～2 × 10⁵ yr. Objects initially deeper into the coorbital region maintain their coorbital state for longer. Using the model of Namouni et al. (Namouni, F., Christou, A.A., Murray, C.D. [1999]. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2506–2509) we show that their dynamics are similar to those of temporary coorbital NEAs of the Earth and Venus. As in that case, the lifetime of resonant libration is dictated by planetary secular perturbations, the inherent chaoticity of the orbits and close encounters with massive objects other than the secondary. In particular we present evidence that, while in the coorbital state, close encounters with the secondary are generally avoided and that Ceres affects the stability of tadpole librators of Vesta. Finally we demonstrate the existence of Quasi-Satellite orbiters of both Ceres and Vesta and conclude that decametre-sized objects detected in the vicinity of Vesta by the DAWN mission may, in fact, belong to this dynamical class rather than be bona-fide (i.e. Keplerian) satellites of Vesta.     

On the prograde rotation of asteriods

Sets of diameter determinations before and after opposition for the asteriods Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Fortuna have been studied statistically for indications of spin direction. All four asteriods are tentatively found to have prograde spin. For Ceres, that conclusion is virtually certain.     

Compressed planetary and lunar ephemerides

A package of FORTRAN software has been developed which provides planetary and lunar positions, with respect to the solar system barycenter, for all times in the interval 1801–2049; positions agree to 1 milliarcsecond with those generated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris 200 (DE200). The system consists of approximately 800 kilobytes of ephemeris files and 40 kilobytes of programs, totalling 5% of the storage required by DE200. After removal of reference orbits, segments of DE200 positions were fitted by finite Chebyshev series of degree 40. The Chebyshev coefficients were rounded to integer multiples of a suitable unit and packed to form the ephemeris files.     

Improvements of Planetary Theories Over 6000 Years

Taking advantage of the JPL Long Ephemeris DE406 and of the semi-analytical solution for the planetary motions VSOP87, we make an approximation of the differences JPL–VSOP. The form of the approximation (arguments and Poisson expansions) is analogous to the time series of the theory. We improve the planetary solution VSOP87 in two directions: a better fit of the integration constants via the highly precise observations used in DE406 and an extension of the length of validity covering the 6000 years of the source ephemeris. Over an interval of 2000 years, we achieve on the mean longitudes (test variables) a precision better than 0.005 for inner planets and 0.015 for outer ones. On the longest time interval covering 6000 years the precision is better than 0.03 for inner planets and 1.2 for outer ones.     

Multiscale Analysis of the Instantaneous Eccentricity Oscillations of the Planets of the Solar System from 13 000 BC to 17 000 AD

Astronomy Letters - The high-resolution Jet Propulsion Laboratory DE431 and DE432 planetary ephemeris are used to evaluate the instantaneous eccentricity functions of the orbits of the planets of...     

Influence of the largest asteroids on the orbital motions of terrestrial planets: application to the Earth and Mars

The level of precision of modern numerical ephemeris of the Solar System necessitates taking into account the gravitational influence of the largest asteroids on the terrestrial planets. This can be done in a straightforward manner when assuming that the mass of the asteroid is well known. Nevertheless, this is rarely the case, even for the largest asteroids. In this paper, we use recent determinations of the masses of Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta to both qualitatively and quantitatively determine the action of these asteroids on the orbital parameters of the Earth and Mars. This is done by the numerical integration by comparing the orbital motions of the perturbed planet when adding or not the perturbing asteroid to the classical 9 bodies problem (the Sun + the eight planets). Some preliminary results are discussed. Published in Russian in Astronomicheskii Vestnik, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 83–86. The text was submitted by the autors in English.