The Galileo star scanner observations at Amalthea |
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Authors: | Paul D Fieseler Olen W Adams Nancy Vandermey EE Theilig Kathryn A Schimmels George D Lewis Shadan M Ardalan Claudia J Alexander |
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Institution: | Galileo Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA |
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Abstract: | In November of 2002, the Galileo spacecraft passed within 250 km of Jupiter's moon Amalthea. An onboard telescope, the star scanner, observed a series of bright flashes near the moon. It is believed that these flashes represent sunlight reflected from 7 to 9 small moonlets located within about 3000 km of Amalthea. From star scanner geometry considerations and other arguments, we can constrain the diameter of the observed bodies to be between 0.5 m to several tens of kilometers. In September of 2003, while crossing Amalthea's orbit just prior to Galileo's destruction in the jovian atmosphere, a single additional body seems to have been observed. It is suspected that these bodies are part of a discrete rocky ring embedded within Jupiter's Gossamer ring system. |
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Keywords: | Satellites of Jupiter Planetary rings Jupiter Impact processes |
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