DETECTION OF AN OXYGEN ATMOSPHERE ON JUPITER MOON EUROPA

被引：306

作者：

HALL, DT ^{[1
]}

STROBEL, DF ^{[1
]}

FELDMAN, PD ^{[1
]}

MCGRATH, MA ^{[1
]}

WEAVER, HA ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] SPACE TELESCOPE SCI INST,BALTIMORE,MD 21218

来源：

NATURE | 1995年 / 373卷 / 6516期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1038/373677a0

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

EUROPA, the second large satellite out from Jupiter, is roughly the size of Earth's Moon, but unlike the Moon, it has water ice on its surface(1), There have been Suggestions that an oxygen atmosphere should accumulate around such a body, through reactions which break up the water molecules and form molecular hydrogen and oxygen(2,3), The lighter H-2 molecules would escape from Europa relatively easily, leaving behind an atmosphere rich in oxygen, Here we report the detection of atomic oxygen emission from Europa, which we interpret as being produced by the simultaneous dissociation and excitation of atmospheric O-2 by electrons from Jupiter's magnetosphere, Europa's molecular oxygen atmosphere is very tenuous, with a surface pressure about 10(-11) that of the Earth's atmosphere at sea level.

引用

页码：677 / 679

页数：3

共 20 条

[1] EMPIRICAL-MODEL OF THE IO PLASMA TORUS - VOYAGER MEASUREMENTS [J].