Abstract
Abstract. The small (approximately 500 km in diameter) satellite Enceladus is moving near the equatorial plane and deep in the gravity field of its parent planet Saturn. Owing to tidal interaction with its parent, Enceladus has adopted a pronounced 3-axial ellipsoidal shape and is tidally locked, with rotational and orbital periods of about 1.37 days. As the equator of Saturn is inclined to the planet’s orbital plane, Enceladus, like most of the other satellites of Saturn, undergoes pronounced seasons. This paper gives a summary of the current status as well as shortcomings of our current knowledge regarding Enceladus’ geodetic and dynamic parameters.
Highlights
The Cassini spacecraft began its tour through the Saturnian system in July 2004 and has engaged in 22 targeted flybys of Enceladus
The small satellite is moving near the equatorial plane and deep in the gravity field of Saturn
This paper gives a summary of the current status as well as shortcomings of our current knowledge regarding Enceladus’ geodetic and dynamic parameters
Summary
The Cassini spacecraft began its tour through the Saturnian system in July 2004 and has engaged in 22 targeted flybys of Enceladus. The small satellite is moving near the equatorial plane and deep in the gravity field of Saturn. Cassini’s onboard Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) combines a high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) (focal length: 2,000 mm) and a Wide Angle Camera (WAC) (focal length: 200 mm) (Porco et al, 2004) and delivered several hundreds of images, from which control point networks and high-quality maps could be produced. By radio science data analysis, low-order gravity field parameters of Enceladus could be recovered. Enceladus quickly moved into the focus of scientists. 0.33796 ± 0.00037 °/d with a period of 2.9164 ± 0.0032 years. Enceladus’ orbit pole precesses about Saturn’s spin pole with periodicities of 2.36 and 4.98 years (Giese and Rambaux, (2015), Figure 1)
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