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Water masers in the Kronian system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

Sergei V. Pogrebenko
Affiliation:
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, NL-7990AA, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands emails: pogrebenko@jive.nl, lgurvits@jive.nl, cimo@jive.nl
Leonid I. Gurvits
Affiliation:
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, NL-7990AA, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands emails: pogrebenko@jive.nl, lgurvits@jive.nl, cimo@jive.nl
Moshe Elitzur
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 600 Rose Street, Lexinton, KY, 40506-0055USA email: moshe@pa.uky.edu
Cristiano B. Cosmovici
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) - Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, I-00133, Rome, Italy email: cosmo@ifsi-roma.inaf.it
Ian M. Avruch
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Postbus 72, NL-9700 AB Groningen, Nederlanden email: iavruch@gmail.com
Salvatore Pluchino
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina, Via Fiorentina, Medicina (BO), Italy emails: s.pluchino@ira.inaf.it, s.montebugnoli@ira.inaf.it, esalerno@ira.inaf.it, g.maccaferri@ira.inaf.it, mbartolini@ira.inaf.it
Stelio Montebugnoli
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina, Via Fiorentina, Medicina (BO), Italy emails: s.pluchino@ira.inaf.it, s.montebugnoli@ira.inaf.it, esalerno@ira.inaf.it, g.maccaferri@ira.inaf.it, mbartolini@ira.inaf.it
Emma Salerno
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina, Via Fiorentina, Medicina (BO), Italy emails: s.pluchino@ira.inaf.it, s.montebugnoli@ira.inaf.it, esalerno@ira.inaf.it, g.maccaferri@ira.inaf.it, mbartolini@ira.inaf.it
Giuseppe Maccaferri
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina, Via Fiorentina, Medicina (BO), Italy emails: s.pluchino@ira.inaf.it, s.montebugnoli@ira.inaf.it, esalerno@ira.inaf.it, g.maccaferri@ira.inaf.it, mbartolini@ira.inaf.it
Ari Mujunen
Affiliation:
Aalto University of Science and Technology, Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FIN-02540 Kylmälä, Finland emails: amn@kurp.hut.fi, jr@kurp.hut.fi, gofrito@kurp.hut.fi, jwagner@kurp.hut.fi, minttu@kurp.hut.fi
Jouko Ritakari
Affiliation:
Aalto University of Science and Technology, Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FIN-02540 Kylmälä, Finland emails: amn@kurp.hut.fi, jr@kurp.hut.fi, gofrito@kurp.hut.fi, jwagner@kurp.hut.fi, minttu@kurp.hut.fi
Guifre Molera
Affiliation:
Aalto University of Science and Technology, Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FIN-02540 Kylmälä, Finland emails: amn@kurp.hut.fi, jr@kurp.hut.fi, gofrito@kurp.hut.fi, jwagner@kurp.hut.fi, minttu@kurp.hut.fi
Jan Wagner
Affiliation:
Aalto University of Science and Technology, Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FIN-02540 Kylmälä, Finland emails: amn@kurp.hut.fi, jr@kurp.hut.fi, gofrito@kurp.hut.fi, jwagner@kurp.hut.fi, minttu@kurp.hut.fi
Minttu Uunila
Affiliation:
Aalto University of Science and Technology, Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FIN-02540 Kylmälä, Finland emails: amn@kurp.hut.fi, jr@kurp.hut.fi, gofrito@kurp.hut.fi, jwagner@kurp.hut.fi, minttu@kurp.hut.fi
Giuseppe Cimo
Affiliation:
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, NL-7990AA, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands emails: pogrebenko@jive.nl, lgurvits@jive.nl, cimo@jive.nl
Francesco Schilliro
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Noto, Casella Postale 141, I-96017 Noto (SI), Italy email: f.schilliro@noto.ira.inaf.it
Marco Bartolini
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Istituto di Radio Astronomia (IRA), Stazione Radioastronomica di Medicina, Via Fiorentina, Medicina (BO), Italy emails: s.pluchino@ira.inaf.it, s.montebugnoli@ira.inaf.it, esalerno@ira.inaf.it, g.maccaferri@ira.inaf.it, mbartolini@ira.inaf.it
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Abstract

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The presence of water has been considered for a long time as a key condition for life in planetary environments. The Cassini mission discovered water vapour in the Kronian system by detecting absorption of UV emission from a background star (Hansen et al. 2006). Prompted by this discovery, we started an observational campaign for search of another manifestation of the water vapour in the Kronian system, its maser emission at the frequency of 22 GHz (1.35 cm wavelength). Observations with the 32 m Medicina radio telescope (INAF-IRA, Italy) started in 2006 using Mk5A data recording and the JIVE-Huygens software correlator. Later on, an on-line spectrometer was used at Medicina. The 14 m Metsähovi radio telescope (TKK-MRO, Finland) joined the observational campaign in 2008 using a locally developed data capture unit and software spectrometer. More than 300 hours of observations were collected in 2006-2008 campaign with the two radio telescopes. The data were analysed at JIVE using the Doppler tracking technique to compensate the observed spectra for the radial Doppler shift for various bodies in the Kronian system (Pogrebenko et al. 2009). Here we report the observational results for Hyperion, Titan, Enceladus and Atlas, and their physical interpretation. Encouraged by these results we started a campaign of follow up observations including other radio telescopes.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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