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OATS-DAUT SEMINAR
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Speaker: Angioletta Coradini (IFSI)
Title: Planetary Satellites : structure and formation
Date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Time: 12:00
Venue: Villa Bazzoni
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Abstract:
The satellite systems of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus have been considered as miniature planetary systems since a long time. While they exhibit very diverse features, their study greatly helped to improve our understanding of the behavior of complex systems formed around a central body in terms of dynamical and physical properties. The regular satellites, which experience negligible solar perturbations, display dynamical properties similar to those of the planets. Moreover, the regular satellites are thought to have formed around their respective planets through a process similar to the one hypothesized for the accretion of the planets around the Sun. Any theory of the origins and evolution of the Solar System must then account for the presence and properties of satellite systems.
When studying the origins of the satellites, we cannot avoid putting them in the context of the formation scenarios of their central planets. In fact, it is difficult to imagine satellite formation as totally independent from the environment generated and strongly affected by the central body. However, one has also to take into account that the formation times of the satellites are very short compared to those of their central bodies, and it is therefore possible for several generations of satellites to exist, each formed under different environmental conditions.
One of the main contributions to the knowledge of the satellites has been given by the Space mission, Voyager, Galileo and Cassini. This last has been a real milestone in the understanding if Saturn system. The most important achievements of this mission will be discussed. In this presentation we will review the main discoveries of Cassini in the study of the satellites of Saturn. In particular we will discuss recent discoveries on Phoebe, Titan, Enceladus and Iapetus. The Cassini mission was the first case in which the Italian planetology community was directly involved developing state of the art hardware for a NASA mission.
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contact: Gabriele Cescutti (UNI/TS)