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Planetary Radio Astronomy Bryan Butler. What kinds of things do we observe with the VLA? 45% - Extragalactic 20% - Galactic 30% - Stellar 5% - Solar system.

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Presentation on theme: "Planetary Radio Astronomy Bryan Butler. What kinds of things do we observe with the VLA? 45% - Extragalactic 20% - Galactic 30% - Stellar 5% - Solar system."— Presentation transcript:

1 Planetary Radio Astronomy Bryan Butler

2 What kinds of things do we observe with the VLA? 45% - Extragalactic 20% - Galactic 30% - Stellar 5% - Solar system

3 Solar System “Bodies” n Sun n IPM n Giant planets n Terrestrial planets n Moons n Small bodies

4 Planetary Radio Astronomy Observation of radio wavelength radiation which has interacted with a solar system body in any way, and use of the data to deduce information about the body: n n spin/orbit state n n surface and subsurface properties n n atmospheric properties n n magnetospheric properties n n ring properties Types of radiation: n n thermal emission n n reflected emission (radar or other) n n synchrotron emission n n occultations

5 Mercury n Closest to Sun n Magnetic field n No atmosphere n Hot!

6 Mercury - Thermal Emission Mitchell & de Pater 1994

7 The Goldstone/VLA Radar

8 Mercury - Radar Butler et al. 1993 polar ice? Volcanoes?

9 Venus n Closest to Earth n Thick atmosphere n Hot!

10 Venus - models Venus models at C, X, U, and K-bands:

11 Venus - residuals Venus residual images at U and K-bands:

12 Venus – Thermal Emission Examination of the brightness temperature spectrum of Venus shows unexpected behavior at long wavelengths: Moon – scaled & offset

13 Mars n Most like Earth n Thin atmosphere n Cold n Interesting Geology

14 Mars - Atmospheric Water Clancy, Grossman, & Muhleman 1992 cold & dry!

15 Mars - Radar Butler, Muhleman & Slade 1994 polar cap lava flows “Stealth”

16 Jupiter n Biggest planet n Gas ball n “weather” (GRS) n rings

17 Jupiter - Synchrotron De Pater, Schulz & Brecht 1997 = 20cm = 20cm

18 3-D Reconstruction Developed by Bob Sault (ATNF) - see Sault et al. 1997; Leblanc et al. 1997; de Pater & Sault 1998

19 Saturn n 2nd biggest planet n Gas ball n “weather” n Rings

20 Saturn - Thermal Emission van der Tak, de Pater, Silva & Millan 1997 = 2cm = 2cm

21 Titan n Bigger than Pluto n thick atmosphere (haze/smog) (haze/smog) n ice + liquid surface

22 Titan - Radar Muhleman, Grossman, & Butler 1995 no global ethane/ methane ocean methane ocean maybe ‘seas’?


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