The New Horizons spacecraft's encounter with the cold classical Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU
) revealed a contact-binary planetesimal. We investigated how ...Arrokoth formed and found that it is the product of a gentle, low-speed merger in the early Solar System. Its two lenticular lobes suggest low-velocity accumulation of numerous smaller planetesimals within a gravitationally collapsing cloud of solid particles. The geometric alignment of the lobes indicates that they were a co-orbiting binary that experienced angular momentum loss and subsequent merger, possibly because of dynamical friction and collisions within the cloud or later gas drag. Arrokoth's contact-binary shape was preserved by the benign dynamical and collisional environment of the cold classical Kuiper Belt and therefore informs the accretion processes that operated in the early Solar System.
Four small moons--Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra--follow near-circular, near-equatorial orbits around the central 'binary planet' comprising Pluto and its large moon, Charon. New observational details ...of the system have emerged following the discoveries of Kerberos and Styx. Here we report that Styx, Nix and Hydra are tied together by a three-body resonance, which is reminiscent of the Laplace resonance linking Jupiter's moons Io, Europa and Ganymede. Perturbations by the other bodies, however, inject chaos into this otherwise stable configuration. Nix and Hydra have bright surfaces similar to that of Charon. Kerberos may be much darker, raising questions about how a heterogeneous satellite system might have formed. Nix and Hydra rotate chaotically, driven by the large torques of the Pluto-Charon binary.
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3.
The seventh inner moon of Neptune Showalter, M R; de Pater, I; Lissauer, J J ...
Nature (London),
02/2019, Volume:
566, Issue:
7744
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
During its 1989 flyby, the Voyager 2 spacecraft imaged six small moons of Neptune, all with orbits well interior to that of the large, retrograde moon Triton
. Along with a set of nearby rings, these ...moons are probably younger than Neptune itself; they formed shortly after the capture of Triton and most of them have probably been fragmented multiple times by cometary impacts
. Here we report Hubble Space Telescope observations of a seventh inner moon, Hippocamp. It is smaller than the other six, with a mean radius of about 17 kilometres. We also observe Naiad, Neptune's innermost moon, which was last seen in 1989, and provide astrometry, orbit determinations and size estimates for all the inner moons, using an analysis technique that involves distorting consecutive images to compensate for each moon's orbital motion and that is potentially applicable to searches for other moons and exoplanets. Hippocamp orbits close to Proteus, the outermost and largest of these moons, and the orbital semimajor axes of the two moons differ by only ten per cent. Proteus has migrated outwards because of tidal interactions with Neptune. Our results suggest that Hippocamp is probably an ancient fragment of Proteus, providing further support for the hypothesis that the inner Neptune system has been shaped by numerous impacts.
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Saturn's moon Enceladus emits a plume of water vapour and micrometre-sized ice particles from a series of warm fissures located near its south pole. This geological activity could be powered or ...controlled by variations in the tidal stresses experienced by Enceladus as it moves around its slightly eccentric orbit. The specific mechanisms by which these varying stresses are converted into heat, however, are still being debated. Furthermore, it has proved difficult to find a clear correlation between the predicted tidal forces and measured temporal variations in the plume's gas content or the particle flux from individual sources. Here we report that the plume's horizontally integrated brightness is several times greater when Enceladus is near the point in its eccentric orbit where it is furthest from Saturn (apocentre) than it is when near the point of closest approach to the planet (pericentre). More material therefore seems to be escaping from beneath Enceladus' surface at times when geophysical models predict its fissures should be under tension and therefore may be wider open.
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•A new pattern has appeared in recent Cassini images of Saturn’s D ring.•This pattern formed from some event that disturbed the rings in late 2011.•The new pattern dissipated rapidly within only two ...years.•A similar pattern may have been seen by the Voyager spacecraft.
Images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft between 2012 and 2015 reveal a periodic brightness variation in a region of Saturn’s D ring that previously appeared to be rather featureless. Furthermore, the intensity and radial wavenumber of this pattern have decreased steadily with time since it was first observed. Based on analogies with similar structures elsewhere in the D ring, we propose that this structure was created by some event that disturbed the orbital motions of the ring particles, giving them finite orbital eccentricities and initially aligned pericenters. Differential orbital precession then transformed this structure into a spiral pattern in the ring’s optical depth that became increasingly tightly wound over time. The observed trends in the pattern’s radial wavenumber are roughly consistent with this basic model, and also indicate that the ring-disturbing event occurred in early December 2011. Similar events in 1979 may have generated the periodic patterns seen in this same region by the Voyager spacecraft. The 2011 event could have been caused by debris striking the rings, or by a disturbance in the planet’s electromagnetic environment. The rapid reduction in the intensity of the brightness variations over the course of just a few years indicates that some process is either damping orbital eccentricities in this region or causing the orbital pericenters of particles with the same semi-major axis to become misaligned.
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On 2005 November 27 (day 331), the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer instrument onboard the Cassini spacecraft obtained high signal-to-noise, spatially resolved measurements of Enceladus' ...particle plume. These data are processed to obtain spectra of the plume at a range of altitudes between 50 and 300 km from the surface. These spectra show that the particulate component of the plume consists primarily of fine-grained water ice. The spectral data are used to derive profiles of particle densities versus height, which are in turn converted into measurements of the velocity distribution of particles launched from the surface between 80 and 160 m s-1 (that is, between one-third and two-thirds of the escape speed). These calculations indicate that particles with radii of 1 mm are approximately equally likely to have launch speeds anywhere between 80 and 160 m s-1, while particles with radii of 2 and 3 mm have progressively steeper velocity distributions. These findings should constrain models of particle production and acceleration within Enceladus.
Jupiter's moon lo is known to host active volcanoes. In February and March 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft obtained a global snapshot of lo's volcanism. A 350-kilometer-high volcanic plume was seen ...to emanate from the Tvashtar volcano (62°N, 122°W), and its motion was observed. The plume's morphology and dynamics support nonballistic models of large lo plumes and also suggest that most visible plume particles condensed within the plume rather than being ejected from the source. In images taken in Jupiter eclipse, nonthermal visible-wavelength emission was seen from individual volcanoes near lo's sub-Jupiter and anti-Jupiter points. Near-infrared emission from the brightest volcanoes indicates minimum magma temperatures in the 1150- to 1335-kelvin range, consistent with basaltic composition.
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•Saturn’s D ring contains a corrugation and a periodic optical depth variation.•Both patterns likely arose from some event in 1983 that disturbed the rings.•Both patterns could be consistent with an ...impact by cometary debris.
Previous investigations of Saturn’s outer D ring (73,200–74,000km from Saturn’s center) identified periodic brightness variations whose radial wavenumber increased linearly over time. This pattern was attributed to a vertical corrugation, and its temporal variability implied that some event – possibly an impact with interplanetary debris – caused the ring to become tilted out the planet’s equatorial plane in 1983. This work examines these patterns in greater detail using a more extensive set of Cassini images in order to obtain additional insights into the 1983 event. These additional data reveal that the D ring is not only corrugated, but also contains a time-variable periodic modulation in its optical depth that probably represents organized eccentric motions of the D-ring’s particles. This second pattern suggests that whatever event tilted the rings also disturbed the radial or azimuthal velocities of the ring particles. Furthermore, the relative amplitudes of the two patterns indicate that the vertical motions induced by the 1983 event were 2.3±0.5 times larger than the corresponding in-plane motions. If these structures were indeed produced by an impact, material would need to strike the ring at a steep angle (>60° from the ring plane) to produce such motions. Meanwhile, the corrugation wavelengths in the D ring are about 0.7% shorter than one would predict based on extrapolations from similar structures in the nearby C ring. This could indicate that the D-ring was tilted/disturbed about 60days before the C ring. Such a timing difference could be explained if the material that struck the rings was derived from debris released when some object broke up near Saturn some months earlier. To reproduce the observed time difference, this debris would need to have a substantial initial velocity dispersion and then have its orbital properties perturbed by some phenomenon like solar tides prior to its collision with the rings.
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We review our understanding of Saturn's rings after nearly 6 years of observations by the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's rings are composed mostly of water ice but also contain an undetermined reddish ...contaminant. The rings exhibit a range of structure across many spatial scales; some of this involves the interplay of the fluid nature and the self-gravity of innumerable orbiting centimeter- to meter-sized particles, and the effects of several peripheral and embedded moonlets, but much remains unexplained. A few aspects of ring structure change on time scales as short as days. It remains unclear whether the vigorous evolutionary processes to which the rings are subject imply a much younger age than that of the solar system. Processes on view at Saturn have parallels in circumstellar disks.
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Existing intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) techniques are criticized for the lack of image guided treatment planning and energy deposition with, at times, poor resultant dosimetry and low ...radiation dose. We pioneered a novel method of IORT that incorporates customized, computed tomography (CT)-based treatment planning and high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy to overcome these drawbacks: CT-HDR-IORT.
A phase 1 study was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and safety of CT-HDR-IORT. Eligibility criteria included age ≥50 years, invasive or in situ breast cancer, tumor size <3 cm, and N0 disease. Patients were eligible before or within 30 days of breast-conserving surgery (BCS). BCS was performed, and a multilumen balloon catheter was placed. CT images were obtained, a customized HDR brachytherapy plan was created, and a dose of 12.5 Gy was delivered to 1-cm depth from the balloon surface. The catheter was removed, and the skin was closed. The primary endpoints were feasibility and acute toxicity. Feasibility was defined as IORT treatment interval (time from CT acquisition until IORT completion) ≤90 minutes. The secondary endpoints included dosimetry, cosmetic outcome, quality of life, and late toxicity.
Twenty-eight patients were enrolled. The 6-month follow-up assessments were completed by 93% of enrollees. The median IORT treatment interval was 67.2 minutes (range, 50-108 minutes). The treatment met feasibility criteria in 26 women (93%). The dosimetric goals were met in 22 patients (79%). There were no Radiation Therapy Oncology Group grade 3+ toxicities; 6 patients (21%) experienced grade 2 events. Most patients (93%) had good/excellent cosmetic outcomes at the last follow-up visit.
CT-HDR-IORT is feasible and safe. This promising approach for a conformal, image-based, higher-dose breast IORT is being evaluated in a phase 2 trial.
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