Planetary Science
The Planetary Science Group at MSSL is a leading research group studying
planetary systems across the Solar System and beyond. Our science themes
are planetary magnetospheres, moon interactions, surfaces and comets. We
produce scientific instruments for international space exploration
missions, such as the Cassini mission to Saturn, and then analyse the
information which comes back from those instruments. We are analysing
data from some of the Solar System's most interesting scientific
targets, including Saturn and its moons Titan, Enceladus and Rhea, Mars,
Venus and comets. The group is also heavily involved in future missions
to Mars, Jupiter and other Solar System bodies. Previous missions
include Beagle 2 and the Giotto mission to comets Halley and
Grigg-Skjellerup. We work closely with the MSSL Space Plasma Physics and Imaging groups and the UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy, and are part of the Centre for Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birkbeck.
News
Dr. Chris Arridge awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship
Dr. Chris Arridge has commenced a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) in the Planetary Science Group at MSSL and is joined by Dr. Lucie Green (Solar Physics, URF 2012) and Dr. Tom Kitching (Astrophysics, URF 2011). Professor Alan Smith, Director of MSSL said 'We are very proud to host these three exceptional scientists and look forward to working with them in the years to come. They will significantly strengthen our engagement in science exploitation, future missions, outreach and education.' More...
Planetary science group hosts Cassini CAPS Team Meeting 43
On Thursday 31 May and Friday 1 June the Planetary science group is hosting the 43rd meeting of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) team.
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Selection of JUICE mission to Jupiter and Ganymede by ESA
ESA's next "large class" (L-class) mission will be a mission called JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) to study the giant planet Jupiter, its planetary system and magnetosphere, and particularly its moon Ganymede.
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Planetary group scientists attend Cassini Magnetospheric and Plasma Science Meeting
Andrew Coates and Tom Nordheim attended the Cassini Magnetospheric and Plasma Science (MAPS) working group meeting at University of Cologne on 28-30 March. More...
Comet studies in the planetary group catch media attention at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting
In a presentation at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester, planetary group PhD student Yudish Ramanjooloo presented his work on using amateur images of comets to infer the properties of the surrounding solar wind. This work was picked up for a media article in Sky at Night online. More...
Science Nuggets
Titan's leaking atmosphere
Saturn’s enigmatic moon Titan is of special interest to scientists due to many of its Earth-like features such as lakes, a methane cycle similar to the water (hydrological) cycle on Earth and large organic molecules in its atmosphere. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere and it is larger than the planet Mercury. More...
Mapping Saturn's magnetosphere
When walking or driving somewhere new most people would take a map or a GPS device to find their way around. Planetary scientists usually make maps of the surfaces of planetary bodies to understand surface features. For the most part, the magnetospheres (space environments) of the planets are invisible. We have to use instruments that detect particles and magnetic fields to find our way around, like using senses of taste, smell and touch to understand where we are inside a magnetosphere. More...
Dione's thin oxygen exosphere
Dione is a moon of Saturn, discovered in 1684 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. Over 300 years later, planetary scientists including Andrew Coates and Geraint Jones from MSSL-UCL, have discovered that Dione has a weak exosphere near its surface (at planets with denser atmospheres, the exosphere is the outermost layer of its atmosphere). This exosphere is very very thin, about a million billionth of the Earth's atmospheric density. The work shows that the exosphere contains molecular oxygen - the same form of oxygen as in Earth's atmosphere. This gives us important information about how the atmosphere is produced. More...
Counting electrons in space
Space isn't really a empty. In reality it's filled with particles that can be measured by instruments on spacecraft. But there aren't that many of them so special techniques need to be used to work out the density and temperature of the particles surrounding the planets, and our spacecraft.
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Electrified ice from Saturn's moon Enceladus
During the Cassini spacecraft’s first encounter with Saturn’s 500km-wide
moon Enceladus, clear indications were detected by the spacecraft’s
magnetometer that the way that this body was interacting with Saturn’s
magnetosphere was highly unusual. Further observations in 2005 showed
that the moon was expelling gas and dust from its south polar region.
More...
Page last modified on 09 dec 11 10:30
