Occultations of Stars by Planets, Moons, and Rings

詹姆斯·埃利奥特博士将使用恒星的观测技术 太阳系天体的掩星， 外太阳系的行星和它们的环。 的 这种技术空间分辨率应该是大约4公里 这是几千倍， 普通的地球方法。 1989年，艾略特博士将观察一个 明亮的星星被土星及其光环遮蔽。 土星是 预计这样一颗明亮的星星每80年就会消失一次， 平均，所以即将到来的活动提供了一个独特的机会， 从地球上以高空间分辨率探测环系统。 这些和随后的观察应该改善运动学 土星环的模型比以前的模型大了20倍 这可能与旅行者号航天器的数据有关。 从这些数据 应该能回答关于结构的基本问题 和土星环系统演化的时间尺度。 的 掩星研究还包括对月球上层的调查 土星和天王星的大气层，因为该技术可以产生 温度，压力和数密度分布在高 空间分辨率

Dr. James Elliot will use the observational technique of stellar occultations of Solar System objects to probe the characteristics of planets and their rings in the outer Solar System. The spatial resolution of this technique should be about 4 kilometers which is several thousand times better than is possible with ordinary Earth-based methods. In 1989 Dr. Elliot will observe an occultation of a bright star by Saturn and its rings. Saturn is expected to occult such a bright star once every 80 years, on average, so this upcoming event presents a unique opportunity to probe the ring system at high spatial resolution from Earth. These and subsequent observations should improve the kinematic model of Saturn's rings by a factor of 20 over what has been possible with data from the Voyager spacecraft. From these data should come answers to fundamental questions about the structure and time scales of evolution of the ring system of Saturn. The occultation studies also include investigation of the upper atmospheres of Saturn and Uranus, since the technique can produce temperature, pressure, and number density profiles at high spatial resolution.