Context. In 2009, the Sun and the Earth passed through the equatorial plane of Jupiter and therefore the orbital planes of its main satellites. It was the equinox on Jupiter. This occurrence made mutual occultations and eclipses between the satellites possible. Experience has shown that the observations of such events provide accurate astrometric data able to bring new information on the dynamics of the Galilean satellites. Observations are made under the form of photometric measurements, but need to be made through the organization of a worldwide observation campaign maximizing the number and the quality of the data obtained. Aims. This work focuses on processing the complete database of photometric observations of the mutual occultations and eclipses of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter made during the international campaign in 2009. The final goal is to derive new accurate astrometric data. Methods. We used an accurate photometric model of mutual events adequate with the accuracy of the observation. Our original method was applied to derive astrometric data from photometric observations of mutual occultations and eclipses of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Results. We processed the 457 lightcurves obtained during the international campaign of photometric observations of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter in 2009. Compared with the theory, for successful observations, the r.m.s. of O-C residuals are equal to 45.8 mas and 81.1 mas in right ascension and declination, respectively; the mean O-C residuals are equal to -2 mas and -9 mas in right ascension and declination, respectively, for mutual occultations; and -6 mas and +1 mas in right ascension and declination, respectively, for mutual eclipses.
Ephemerides of planetary satellites require regular updates to take into account new observations of the satellites. Such revision has been all the more necessary in the case of outer planetary satellites, since a number of new moons have been discovered recently. Thus, we present updated versions of the ephemerides of the outer planetary satellites. The problem and the methodology for estimating ephemeris accuracy are discussed. Comparison with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ephemerides proves that the accuracy depends largely on the distribution of the observations. We give examples where, for a few satellites, the O−C residuals increase sharply at time intervals lying significantly beyond the time interval of observations used to generate the ephemerides. This fact alone indicates that there is an urgent need for new observations. Besides the ephemerides of moons, which can be accessed online via the MULTI-SAT server, we provide orbital parameters for the recently discovered faint satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The problems discussed in this work are important for planning space observations of the outer satellites by future space missions like the European Space Agency (ESA) JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Europa Clipper missions.
Launch of the Gaia space observatory started a new era in astrometry when the accuracy of star coordinates increased by thousands of times. Significant improvement of accuracy was also expected for the coordinates of the Solar system bodies. Gaia DR3 provided us with the data which could be used to test our expectations. In this work, we refine the orbits of a number of outer planetary salellites using both ground-based and Gaia observations. From thirteen outer satellites observed by Gaia, we chose six to obtain their orbits. Some specific moments in using observations of outer satellites made by Gaia are demonstrated. These pecularities stem from scanning motion of Gaia, in particular from the fact that the accuracy of observations is significantly different along and across the scanning direction. As expected, Gaia observations proved to be more precise than those made from Earth, which results in more accurate satellite ephemerides. We estimate accuracy of the ephemerides of considered satellites for the interval between 1996 and 2030. As astrometric positions published in Gaia DR3 were not corrected for the relativistic light deflection by the Sun, we took into account this effect, which slightly diminished the rms residuals. In addition, relativistic light deflection by the giant planets was estimated, which, as it turned out, can be neglected with the given accuracy of Gaia observations.
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