Title of article :
Orbits and masses of Saturnʹs coorbital and F-ring shepherding satellites
Author/Authors :
Jacobson، نويسنده , , Robert A. and French، نويسنده , , Richard G.، نويسنده ,
Issue Information :
روزنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2004
Abstract :
We have obtained numerically integrated orbits for Saturnʹs coorbital satellites, Janus and Epimetheus, together with Saturnʹs F-ring shepherding satellites, Prometheus and Pandora. The orbits are fit to astrometric observations acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope and from Earth-based observatories and to imaging data acquired from the Voyager spacecraft. The observations cover the 38 year period from the 1966 Saturn ring plane crossing to the spring of 2004. In the process of determining the orbits we have found masses for all four satellites. The densities derived from the masses for Janus, Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Pandora in units of g cm−3 are 0.61 −0.06 +0.07 , 0.64 −0.09 +0.13 , 0.42 −0.13 +0.27 , and 0.54 −0.15 +0.30 , respectively.
Keywords :
satellites of Saturn , orbits , Satellitesgeneral