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Title: The gravitational field of Phobos

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA)
;  [1]
  1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (USA)

The external gravitational field produced by a rigid body of uniform density but irregular shape is formulated in terms of spherical harmonics. The formalism is applied to the Martian satellite Phobos. Based on a 3-dimensional shape model of Phobos by Duxbury, the gravitational coefficients up to degree and order 4 for a homogeneous Phobos are computed. In particular, the authors find J{sub 2} = 0.105. The in-plane liberation amplitude of a homogeneous Phobos is predicted to be 0.97{degree}, within the rather large uncertainty of the observed value of 0.78 {plus minus} 0.4{degree}.

OSTI ID:
5833124
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA), Vol. 16:8; ISSN 0094-8276
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English