High Angular Resolution Stellar Imaging with Occultations from the Cassini Spacecraft II: Kronocyclic Tomography

TL;DR

This paper advances stellar imaging by using Cassini's occultation data and tomographic techniques to produce detailed 2D images of complex stellar systems, including binary stars and circumstellar environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel tomographic imaging method for reconstructing detailed stellar images from Cassini occultation data, enabling model-independent brightness profiles.

Findings

Successfully imaged the {} Centauri binary system.

Reconstructed the circumstellar environment of Mira.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of the tomographic imaging technique.

Abstract

We present an advance in the use of Cassini observations of stellar occultations by the rings of Saturn for stellar studies. Stewart et al. (2013) demonstrated the potential use of such observations for measuring stellar angular diameters. Here, we use these same observations, and tomographic imaging reconstruction techniques, to produce two dimensional images of complex stellar systems. We detail the determination of the basic observational reference frame. A technique for recovering model-independent brightness profiles for data from each occulting edge is discussed, along with the tomographic combination of these profiles to build an image of the source star. Finally we demonstrate the technique with recovered images of the {\alpha} Centauri binary system and the circumstellar environment of the evolved late-type giant star, Mira.