The Icy Satellites

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Work done at ROB

 The Icy Satellites  >  Work done at ROB >  Research



Research principle for the icy satellites
The research on icy satellites is not easy due to the lack of data. The satellites have only been passed over by probes on a few occasion at best so the information is indeed scars. Never has a probe been put in orbit around one of these bodies to continuously study it.

To get an idea of what could be inside these satellites, we can try to understand its geological history by analysing the surface and by taking the collected data from the probes into account. (mass, size, density, shape, gravitational field and moments of inertia, and magnetic field).

From there it is possible to construct a model for the interior that concurs with the data; a numerical approach is necessary to do this. Nevertheless, this demands a good understanding of the behaviour if materials (ice, rocks,...) in the conditions of temperature and pressure that are present in the satellites, which is not always obvious. Each model has a set of specific parameters (Love number, average density but also density, rigidity and other properties for each layer). In general, lots of models and so lots of parameters correspond to to the observations. For example, in Titan's case, the presence of an internal liquid ocean is not always certain. Other internal models without this ocean are equally valid.

The job of the researchers is to distinguish the the more likely ones. What would be the measurements to take during a mission to better limit the set of parameters and what would be the characteristics (precision of instruments) necessary to the probe? This part of the work is also done by numerical simulations. The results are then published in many scientific reviews.
The contributions of ROB
The researchers in geophysics at the Observatory in Belgium are interested principally in the study of Ganymede, Europa and Titan.

The Saturnian system and Enceladus and Titan:

The scientists of the Royal Observatory of Belgium are involved in research concerning the Saturnian System and Enceladus and Titan in particular. Here follows the list of publications in this domain:

  1. Karatekin Ö. and Van Hoolst T., 2006, “The effect of a dense atmosphere on the tidally induced potential of Titan.”, Icarus, 183(1), pp. 230-232.
  2. Karatekin Ö., Van Hoolst T., and Tokano T., 2008, “Effect of internal gravitational coupling on Titan's non-synchronous rotation.”, Geophys. Res. Letters, 35, L16202, DOI: 10.1029/2008GL034744.
  3. Van Hoolst T., Rambaux N., Karatekin Ö., and Baland R.-M., 2009, “The effect of gravitational and pressure torques on Titan's length-of-day variations.”, Icarus, 200(1), pp. 256-264, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2008.11.009.
  4. Rambaux N., Castillo-Rogez J.C., Williams J.G., and Karatekin Ö., 2010, “Librational response of Enceladus.”, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, 4202, DOI: 10.1029/2009GL041465.
  5. Baland, R.-M., Van Hoolst T., Yseboodt M., and Karatekin O¨., 2011, Titan's Obliquity as evidence of a subsurface ocean?, Astron. Astrophys., 530, A141, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201116578.
  6. Tokano T., Van Hoolst T., and Karatekin Ö., 2011, “Polar motion of Titan forced by the atmosphere.”, J. Geophys. Res. (Planets), 116(E5), CiteID: E05002, DOI: 10.1029/2010JE003758.
  7. Charnoz S., Crida A., Castillo-Rogez J.C., Lainey V., Dones L., Karatekin Ö., Tobie G., Mathis S., Le Poncin-Lafitte C., Salmon J., 2011, “Accretion of Saturn’s mid-sized moons during the viscous spreading of young massive rings: solving the paradox of silicate-poor rings versus silicate-rich moons.”, Icarus, 216(2), pp. 535-550, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2011.09.017.
  8. Lainey V., Karatekin Ö., Desmars J., Charnoz S., Arlot J.-E., Emelyanov N., Le Poncin-Lafitte C., Mathis S., Remus F., Tobie G., and Zahn J.-P., 2012, “Strong Tidal Dissipation in Saturn and Constraints on Enceladus.”, Astrophys. J., 752(1), article id. 14, 19 pp., DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/14.
The System of Jupiter and Ganymede and Europa:

The scientists of the Royal Observatory of Belgium are involved in research concerning the System of Jupiter and Ganymede and Europa in particular. Here follows the list of publications in this domain:

  1. Lainey V., Arlot J.E., and Vienne A., 2004, “New accurate ephemerides for the Galilean satellites of Jupiter: II-Fitting the observations.”, Astron. Astrophys., 427, pp. 371-376, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041271.
  2. Lainey V., Duriez L., and Vienne A., 2004, “New accurate ephemerides for the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. I. Numerical integration of elaborated equations of motion.”, Astron. Astrophys., 420, pp. 1171-1183, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20034565.
  3. Lainey V. and Tobie G., 2005, “New constraints on Io's and Jupiter's tidal dissipation.”, Icarus, Vol. 179, Issue 2, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2005.07.017, pp. 485-489.
  4. Van Hoolst T., Rambaux N., Karatekin Ö., Dehant V., and Rivoldini A., 2008, “The librations, shape, and icy shell of Europa.”, Icarus, 195(1), pp. 386-399, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2007.12.011.
  5. Van Hoolst T., Rambaux N., Karatekin Ö., and Baland R.-M., 2009, “The effect of gravitational and pressure torques on Titan's length-of-day variations.”, Icarus, 200(1), pp. 256-264, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2008.11.009.
  6. Lainey V., Arlot J.E., Karatekin Ö., and Van Hoolst T., 2009, “Strong tidal dissipation in Io and Jupiter from astrometric observations.”, Nature, 459(7249), pp. 957-959, DOI: 10.1038/nature08108.
  7. Hussmann H., Choblet G., Lainey V., Matson D.L., Sotin C., Tobie G., and Van Hoolst T., 2010, “Implications of Rotation, Orbital States, Energy Sources, and Heat Transport for Internal Processes in Icy Satellites.”, Space Sci. Rev., DOI: DOI 10.1007/s11214-010-9636-0.
  8. Baland R.-M. and Van Hoolst T., 2010, “Librations of the Galilean satellites: the influence of global internal liquid layers.”, Icarus, 209(2), pp. 651-664, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.04.004.
  9. Schubert G., Hussmann H., Lainey V., Matson D. L., McKinnon W. B., Sohl F., Sotin C., Tobie G., Turrini D., and Van Hoolst T., 2010, “Evolution of Icy Satellites.”, Space Sci. Rev., 153(1-4), pp. 447-484, DOI: 10.1007/s11214-010-9635-1.
  10. Bills B. G., Nimmo F., Karatekin Ö., Van Hoolst T., Rambaux N., Levrard B., and Laskar J., 2010, “Rotational dynamics of Europa.”, in: Europa Book, University of Arizona Press Space Science Series.
  11. Baland, R.-M., Van Hoolst T., Yseboodt M., and Karatekin O¨., 2011, Titan's Obliquity as evidence of a subsurface ocean?, Astron. Astrophys., 530, A141, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201116578.
  12. Rambaux N., Van Hoolst T., and Karatekin Ö., 2011, “Librational response of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto with an ocean for a non-keplerian orbit.”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 527, CiteID: A118, DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201015304.
  13. Baland R.-M., Yseboodt M., and Van Hoolst T., 2012, “Obliquity of the Galilean satellites: The influence of a global internal liquid layer.”, Icarus, 220(2), pp. 435-448, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2012.05.020.
  14. Van Hoolst T., Rivoldini A., Baland R.-M., and Yseboodt M., 2012, “The effect of tides and an inner core on the forced longitudinal libration of Mercury.”, Earth Planet. Space Sci., 333, pp. 83-90, DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.04.014.
  15. Van Hoolst T., Baland R.-M., and Trinh A., 2013, “On the librations and tides of large icy satellites.”, Icarus, 226, 299-315.
  16. Grasset O., Dougherty M.K., Coustenis A., Bunce E., Erd C., Titov D., Blanc M., Coates A., Drossart P., Fletcher L., Hussmann H., Jaumann R., Krupp N., Lebreton J.P., Prieto-Ballesteros O., Tortora P., Tosi F., and T. Van Hoolst, 2013, “JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE): an ESA mission to orbit Ganymede and to characterise the Jupiter system.”, Planetary and Space Science, 78, 1-21.
Involvement in the elaborations of the space missions
The JUICE project


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