Latest astrometric results for the Saturnian system
- 1IMCCE, Paris Observatory, Paris, France (valery.lainey@imcce.fr)
- 2LPG, UMR-CNRS 6112, Nantes Université, Nantes, France (gabriel.tobie@univ-nantes.fr)
- 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK (n.cooper@qmul.ac.uk)
- 4Department of Computer Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou, P. R. China (tqfz@jnu.edu.cn)
- 5Institut UTINAM, CNRS UMR 6213, Université de Franche-Comté, OSU THETA, Besançon, France (benoit.noyelles@univ-fcomte.fr)
During the thirteen years spent in orbit around Saturn before its final plunge, the Cassini probe provided more than ten thousand astrometric observations of moons. Such a large amount of precise data has allowed us to search for extremely small signals in the orbital motion of the Saturnian satellites. These signals can be linked to key physical mechanisms at play in the system, opening the doors to a new vision of the Saturn system. Using more than a century of ground-based astrometric observations, and benefiting from Cassini imaging data, we have studied the orbital motion of all of Saturn's inner and main moons, including those recently discovered by the Cassini probe. We show how astrometry has allowed us to characterize the strong tidal effects acting among the Saturnian system, while assessing the interior characteristics of several moons and their primary, including the discovery of Mimas' ocean. Updated results are presented.
How to cite: Lainey, V., Rambaux, N., Tobie, G., Cooper, N., Zhang, Q., Noyelles, B., and Baillié, K.: Latest astrometric results for the Saturnian system, Europlanet Science Congress 2024, Berlin, Germany, 8–13 Sep 2024, EPSC2024-189, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-189, 2024.