Cassini-Huygens
The Cassini-Huygens mission
Cassini is an international space mission involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), together with many other european institutes and industrial partners.
Prof. Iess and the radio science laboratory partecipated in Cassini's radioscience team.
Until today, Cassini is the most expensive and ambitious interplanetary mission ever realized. About 260 scientists, from 17 countries, are working together with the aim of achieving a better understanding of Saturn, its amazing rings, its magnetosphere, its satellite Titan and the other icy satellites.
In collaboration with prof. Bertotti of the University of Pavia and with prof. Tortora of the University of Bologna, prof. Iess carried out a radioscience experiment during the Cassini's cruise phase, which allowed to estimate with high precision the parameter γ and to confirm the general relativity with unprecedent accuracy. This result gained the cover of the scientific magazine "Nature", published on 25 September 2003.
Furthermore, prof. Iess and his team have estimated, with significant accuracy, the gravity field of many Saturn's satellites and in particular of the most important one: Titan. The experiment is aimed to constrain Titan's interior.
scientific Publications
Bertotti, B., L. Iess, and P. Tortora (2003). A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft. Nature 425, 374–376. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01997
Rappaport, N.J., L. Iess, J. Wahr, J.I. Lunine, J.W. Armstrong, S. Asmar, et al. (2008). Can Cassini detect a subsurface ocean in Titan from gravity measurements?. Icarus 194, 711–720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2007.11.024
Iess, L., N.J. Rappaport, R.A. Jacobson, P. Racioppa, D.J. Stevenson, et al. (2010). Gravity field, shape and moment of inertia of titan. Science 327, 1367–1369. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1182583
Iess, L., R.A. Jacobson, M. Ducci, D.J. Stevenson, J.I. Lunine, et al. (2012). The tides of Titan. Science 337, 457–459. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219631
Iess, L., D.J. Stevenson, M. Parisi, D. Hemingway, R.A. Jacobson, et al. (2014). The gravity field and interior structure of Enceladus. Science 344, 78–80. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250551
Tortora, P., M. Zannoni, D. Hemingway, F. Nimmo, R.A. Jacobson, L. Iess, and M. Parisi (2016). Rhea gravity field and interior modeling from Cassini data analysis. Icarus 264, 264–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2015.09.022
Iess, L., B. Militzer, Y. Kaspi, P. Nicholson, D. Durante, P. Racioppa, et al. (2019). Measurement and implications of Saturn’s gravity field and ring mass, Science 364, aat2965. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat2965
Galanti, E., Y. Kaspi, Y. Miguel, T. Guillot, D. Durante, P. Racioppa, and L. Iess (2019). Saturn’s deep atmosphere revealed by the Cassini Grand Finale gravity measurements, Geophysical Research Letters 46, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078087
Durante, D., D.J. Hemingway, P. Racioppa, L. Iess, and D.J. Stevenson (2019). Titan’s gravity field and interior structure after Cassini, Icarus 326, 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.03.003
Di Ruscio, A., A. Fienga, D. Durante, L. Iess, J. Laskar, and M. Gastineau (2020). Analysis of Cassini radio tracking data for the construction of INPOP19a: A new estimate of the Kuiper belt mass, Astronomy and Astrophysics 640. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037920
Fienga, A., A. Di Ruscio, L. Bernus, P. Deram, D. Durante, J. Laskar, and L. Iess (2020). New constraints on the location of P9 obtained with the INPOP19a planetary ephemeris, Astronomy and Astrophysics 640. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037919
Markham, S., D. Durante, L. Iess, and D.J. Stevenson (2020). Possible evidence of p-modes in Cassini measurements of Saturn’s gravity field. The Planetary Science Journal 1, 27.https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ab9f21
Official website