Where is Triton?

Hi there! Today’s post is on the location of Triton. Triton is the largest satellite of Neptune and, of course, we know where it is. The paper I present you, entitled Precise CCD positions of Triton in 2014-2016 using the newest Gaia DR1 star catalog, aims at assisting an accurate modeling of its motion. This is a Chinese study, by Na Wang, Qing-Yu Peng, Huan-Wen Peng, H.J. Xie, S. Ma and Q.F. Zhang, which presents observations made at the Yunnan Observatory. This study has recently been published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Triton’s facts

Triton is by far the largest satellite of Neptune, with a mean radius of 1,350 km. It was discovered almost simultaneously with Neptune, i.e. 17 days later, in 1846. It orbits Neptune in a little less than 6 days, and rotates synchronously.

Surprisingly, its orbit is very inclined with respect to the equator of Neptune (some 24°), and it is retrograde… which means that the inclination should not be given as 24° but as 180-24 = 156°. Usually the satellites have a very small inclination, since they are supposed to have been formed in a nebula which gave birth to the planet. Such a large inclination means that Triton has probably not been formed in situ but was an asteroid, which has been trapped by Neptune. Since then, it loses some orbital energy, which has resulted in a circularization of its orbit and a fall on Neptune.

Triton has been visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, which covered about 40% of its surface. It revealed an atmosphere of nitrogen and evidences of melting, which indicate a geological activity, probably resulting in a differentiated body. It could even harbor or have harbored a subsurface ocean.

Astrometry in the Solar System

The goal of the paper I present today is to give accurate positions of Triton. This is called astrometry. The idea is this: measuring accurately the position of a body at a given date requires to take a picture of the satellite. Stars must be present in the field since the satellite will be positioned according to them. The result will then be compared to the predictions given by dynamical models, called ephemerides. Since we observe only in 2 dimensions, i.e. on the celestial sphere, which is a surface, then an astrometric position consists of two coordinates: the right ascension and the declination.

The positions of the stars surrounding the satellite, actually its image projected on the celestial sphere, since the stars are much further, are known thanks to systematic surveys. The satellite Gaia is currently conducting the most accurate of such surveys ever performed, and the first data were released in 2016, in the Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1, see this post, from October 2016). The accuracy of Gaia lets us hope very accurate future astrometry, and even past, since old observations could be retreated in using Gaia’s catalog.

But why making astrometry? For improving the ephemerides, which would give us a better knowledge of the orbital motion of the satellite. And why improving the ephemerides? I see at least two reasons:

  1. To help future space missions,
  2. To have a better knowledge of the physical properties of the bodies. Some of these properties, like the mass and the energy dissipation (tides), affect the orbital motion.

Potential difficulties

This study presents Earth-based observations, which are affected by:

  1. Diffraction on the CCD chip. When you observe a point as a light-source, you actually see a diffraction disk, and you have to decide which point on the disk is the position of your object. You can partly limit the size of the diffraction disk in limiting the exposure time, this prevents the chip from being saturated. If this results in a too faint object, then you can add several images.
  2. The anisotropy of the light scattering by the surface of the body (here Triton). When we see Triton, we actually see the Solar light, which is reflected by the surface of Triton. Since the surface could be pretty rough, since the limb is darker than the center because of a different incidence angle, and since Triton is not seen as a whole disk (remember the lunar crescent), then the center of the diffraction disk, i.e. the photocentre, is not exactly the location of the body.
  3. The refraction by the atmosphere. The atmosphere distorts the image, which makes the satellite-based images more accurate than the Earth-based ones. This distortion depends on the location of the observatory, and the weather. Some systems of adaptive optics exist, which partly overcome this problem.
  4. The aberration. The relative velocity of the observed object with the observer (the Earth is moving, remember?) alters the apparent position of the objects.
  5. The seeing. When you have some wind, the locations of the stars present some erratic variations.
  6. The inhomogeneity of the CCD chip. An homogeneous lightning will not result in a homogeneous response, because of the positions of the pixel on the image (you have a better sensitivity in the center than close to an edge), and some technical differences between the pixels. A way to overcome this problem is to normalize the light measurement by a flat image, which is the response to a homogeneous lightning. This is usually obtained in taking a picture in the dome, or from the averaging of many images.

This paper

This paper presents 775 new observations, i.e. 775 new positions of Triton at given dates, between 2014 and 2016. The images were taken with a 1-meter refractor at the Yunnan National Observatory, Kunming, Yunnan, China. The residuals, i.e. observed minus predicted positions, are obtained from the ephemerides made by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, USA. The authors obtain mean residuals of a few tens of milli-arcsec, i.e. some thousands of kilometers. Something interesting is the dispersion of these residuals: the authors show that when the stars are positioned with Gaia DR1, the residuals are much less dispersed than with an older catalog. The authors used the catalog UCAC4, released in August 2012 by the US Naval Observatory, for comparison.

These new observations will enrich the databases and permit the future improvements of ephemerides.

Some links

That’s all for today! Please do not forget to comment. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed, and follow me on Twitter.

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