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Gravity Field of Planetary Bodies

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geodesy

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Definition

Planetary bodies. Natural massive objects in the solar system, including planets, moons, asteroids, and comets

Introduction

Satellite-based gravity field determination goes back to the very early days of the space age. It is obvious that the Earth attracted the attention first, but already in 1966 efforts in mapping the lunar gravity field have been successful (Akim, 1966). During the last decades of human space activity, gravity field information of numerous objects (mainly planets and moons) of the solar system could be retrieved. This is owing to the fact that gravity investigations are an integral part of mission design. Knowledge about the gravity field is the key to unlock the structure, rotational state, tidal deformation, crustal thickness, and thermal history of a body – just to mention a few geophysical properties (e.g., de Pater and Lissauer, 2010).

The quality of gravity field models varies considerably (cf. Wieczorek, 2007). It depends on the accuracy and type...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 8042, Graz, Austria

    Oliver Baur

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  1. Oliver Baur
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Correspondence to Oliver Baur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geodetic Institute, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Erik Grafarend

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Baur, O. (2014). Gravity Field of Planetary Bodies. In: Grafarend, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geodesy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_46-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_46-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02370-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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