Working Group UAI

Working Group on Natural Planetary Satellites
of IAU DIVISIONS 1 and 3 (commissions 4, 7, 8, 16, 20)

Purpose:

The Working Group on Natural Planetary Satellites was created in 1973 at the IAU General Assembly in Sydney (cf. report of Commission 20) in order to overhaul the theories of the motions of the satellites. At the present, the motions of many of the natural satellites are not well-known, especially those recently discovered by the Voyager space probes. To promote the development of high-quality ephemerides, the Working Group encourages theoretical studies, coordinates observations, and makes all data available to the user. In 1991, at the General Assembly in Buenos Aires, the Working Group proposed resolutions to make the observations more readily available.

Members:

The members of the Working Group are:

K. Aksnes (ret.), J.E. Arlot (chairman), M. Assafin, C. Blanco, J. Camargo, N. Emelianov,

R.A. Jacobson, G. Krasinsky (+), J.H. Lieske (ret.), D. Pascu, Q.Y. Peng, M. Rapaport (ret.),

P.K. Seidelmann, M. Soma, D.B. Taylor, R. Viera-Martins, G. V. Williams.

(+) Dr Krasinsky died in March 2011
Click here to obtain contacts and addresses.

Reports:

For each triennum, the Working Group provides a report on the activities performed on Natural Satellites. These reports are available below:

Meetings of interest for Natural Satellites purpose:

IAU GA to be held in Beijing, China, on August 20-31, 2012. Program available here. Natural Satellites session will take place on August 24, 2012, 16:00.

Workshop on "A new reduction of old observations in the Gaia era" to be held in Paris, France, on June 20-22, 2012. Program available here.

DPS of the AAS to be held in Nantes, France, on October 3-7, 2011. Program available here.

Workshop "on Astrometry now and in the future to be held in Antalya, Turkey, on September 12-13, 2011. Program here.

The Natural Satellites Data Center NSDC:

Following the resolution of Commission 20, a Data Center providing astrometric observations of the Natural Planetary Satellites was settled. This Data Center NSDC is established on a work station at the IMCCE and provides astrometric observations under several forms.