CCD astrometric observations of Amalthea and Thebe in the Gaia era

Abstract

In the framework of the 2014-2015 campaign of mutual events, we observed Jupiter's inner satellites Amalthea (JV) and Thebe (JXIV). We focused on estimating whether the positioning accuracy determined from direct astrometry could compete with that derived from photometric observations of eclipses, for dynamical purposes. We present the analysis of 35 observations of Amalthea and 19 observations of Thebe realized with the 1-m telescope at Pic du Midi observatory during three nights in 2015, January and April. The images were reduced through an optimal process that includes image and spherical corrections using the Gaia-DR1 catalog to provide the most accurate equatorial (RA, Dec) positions. We compared the observed positions of both satellites with the theoretical positions from JPL JUP310 satellite ephemerides and from IMCCE INPOP13c planetary ephemeris. The rms (O-C) in equatorial positions are ±112 mas for the Amalthea observations, or 330 km at Jupiter, and ±90 mas for the Thebe observations, or 270 km at Jupiter. Using the Gaia-DR1 catalog allowed us to eliminate systematic errors due to the star references up to 120 mas, or 350 km at Jupiter, by comparison with the UCAC4 catalog.