Activities of the Department of Astronomy and McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin. Semiannual report, 1 January-30 June 1986

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6988505

Smith, H J

Extensive observations of Halley's Comet were obtained. The comet exhibited large variability; moreover, its variability was much more rapid than can be accounted for by water vaporization as the sole controller of activity. Jupiter satellite Io's atmosphere was found to be distended by more than the equilibrium scale height but less than for unimpeded streaming into space. The atmosphere is at least temporarily bound to IO. Uranus' (3-0) H/sub 2/ quadrupole line shapes require a modification of Baines and Bergstralh's standard model which incorporates at high altitude absorbing haze in addition to the lower haze layer. A fraction of normal H2 equal to 0.25 + or 0.10 is derived, in good agreement with the standard model. This result is unchanged when the preliminary temperature structure derived by the Voyager Radio Occultation Experiment is used instead of Appleby's model c. Out of the six Pluto-Charon mutual events observed this year, data were obtained on four. Preliminary analysis is yielding improved estimates for the diameters, masses, densities, and albedos of these objects.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6988505
• Report Number(s): N-86-32378; NASA-CR-179667; NAS-1.26:179667; SAR-25; TRN: 87-002673
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COMETS
VARIATIONS
JUPITER PLANET
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLUTO PLANET
SATELLITES
URANUS PLANET
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HYDROGEN
ATMOSPHERES
DATA
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANETS
640107* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena