An X-ray measurement of Titan’s atmospheric extent from its transit of the Crab Nebula
titan.jpg
Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0403283
From: Koji Mori [view email]
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:12:40 GMT (367kb)
An X-ray measurement of Titan’s atmospheric extent from its transit of
the Crab Nebula
Authors:
K. Mori (1),
H. Tsunemi,
H. Katayama (2),
D.N. Burrows,
G.P. Garmire (1),
A.E.Metzger (3) ((1) Penn State University, (2) Osaka University, (3) Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Comments: 14 pages, 5 figures, AASTeX preprint. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal
Saturn’s largest satellite, Titan, transited the Crab Nebula on 5 January
2003. We observed this astronomical event with the {it Chandra} X-ray
Observatory. An “occultation shadow” has clearly been detected and is found
to be larger than the diameter of Titan’s solid surface. The difference gives a
thickness for Titan’s atmosphere of 880 $pm$ 60 km. This is the first
measurement of Titan’s atmospheric extent at X-ray wavelengths. The value
measured is consistent with or slightly larger than those estimated from
earlier Voyager observations at other wavelengths. We discuss the possibility
of temporal variations in the thickness of Titan’s atmosphere.
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References and citations for this submission:
SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to ,
cited by, arXiv reformatted)
