• Title of article

    Can Cassini detect a subsurface ocean in Titan from gravity measurements?

  • Author/Authors

    Rappaport، نويسنده , , Nicole J. and Iess، نويسنده , , Luciano and Wahr، نويسنده , , John and Lunine، نويسنده , , Jonathan I. and Armstrong، نويسنده , , J.W. and Asmar، نويسنده , , Sami W. and Tortora، نويسنده , , Paolo and Di Benedetto، نويسنده , , Mauro and Racioppa، نويسنده , , Paolo، نويسنده ,

  • Issue Information
    روزنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2008
  • Pages
    10
  • From page
    711
  • To page
    720
  • Abstract
    Recent models of Titanʹs interior predict that the satellite contains an ocean of water and ammonia under an icy layer. Direct evidence for the presence of an ocean can be provided on the Cassini mission only by radio science determination of Titan Love number k 2 . Simulations that use the five flybys T11, T22 T33, T45, and T68 (the latter two belonging to the extended mission) lead to the result that in the elastic case, where the Love number is real, k 2 will be determined with a one-sigma accuracy of 0.1. In the viscoelastic case, where k 2 is complex, the real and imaginary parts of k 2 will be determined with one sigma accuracies of 0.138 and 0.115, respectively. Ocean and oceanless models that include a viscoelastic rheology are built. In the viscoelastic case, there is a 93% probability to correctly predict the presence or absence of an ocean; this probability improves to 97% in the elastic case.
  • Keywords
    interiors , Titan
  • Journal title
    Icarus
  • Serial Year
    2008
  • Journal title
    Icarus
  • Record number

    2375975