The use of stellar occultations to study the figures and atmospheres of small bodies in the outer solar system

The methods of analyzing stellar occultations by small bodies in the outer solar system are discussed with examples from Triton, Pluto, and Charon. Simulations were performed characterizing the analysis of multi-chord occultations including: the effects of the direction of residual minimization in figure fits, the complications in measuring the reliability of fitted figure parameters when there are few degrees of freedom, and the proper treatment of grazing chords in model fitting. The 2005 July 11 C313.2 stellar occultation by Charon was analyzed. Occultation timings from the three published data sets were combined to accurately determine the mean radius of Charon: 606.0 ± 1.5 km. The analysis indicates that a slight oblateness in the body (0.006 ± 0.003) best matches the data, with a confidence level of 86%. Charon's mean radius corresponds to a bulk density of 1.63 0.07 g/cm3, which is significantly less than Pluto's (1.92 ± 0.12 g/cm3), consistent with an impact formation scenario in which at least one of the impactors was differentiated. The 2002 August 21 P131.1 and the 1988 June 9 P8 stellar occultations by Pluto were analyzed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Person, Michael James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James L. Elliot.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37278
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/37278

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37278