Findings on Planetary Surfaces and Atmospheres from a Study of the Photographic Collections of the I.a.U. Planetary Data Center at Meudon

摘要

To facilitate researches on collections of photographic plates on planets, previously scattered in several observatories, the Committee 'International Cooperation for the Observations of Planets' of the International Astronomical Union established in 1961 two Planetary Data Centers, at Lowell Observatory, USA and at Meudon Observatory, France. Several thousands of plates of all the planets are now available at these Centers. The Committee coordinated also new photographic observations of planets between stations at several longitudes on the Earth, for the studying rapid changes on planetary atmospheres and surface features. The present report summarize the new findings on planets Mercury, Venus and Mars, and on satellites systems, obtained by the analysis during the past three years of the documents available at the Meudon Data Center. (Author)