Search

Jupiter's moon Europa has a predominantly water-ice surface that is modified by exposure to its space environment. Charged particles break molecular bonds in surface ice, thus dissociating the water to ultimately produce H 2 and O 2 , which provides a potential oxygenation mechanism for Europa's subsurface ocean. These species are understood to form Europa's primary atmospheric constituents. Although remote observations provide important global constraints on Europa's atmosphere, the molecular O 2 abundance has been inferred from atomic O emissions. Europa's atmospheric composition had never been directly sampled and model-derived oxygen production estimates ranged over several orders of magnitude. Here, we report direct observations of H 2 + and O 2 + pickup ions from the dissociation of Europa's water-ice surface and confirm these species are primary atmospheric constituents. In contrast to expectations, we find the H 2 neutral atmosphere is dominated by a non-thermal, escaping population. We find 12 ± 6 kg s -1 (2.2 ± 1.2 × 10 26  s -1 ) O 2 are produced within Europa's surface, less than previously thought, with a narrower range to support habitability in Europa's ocean. This process is found to be Europa's dominant exogenic surface erosion mechanism over meteoroid bombardment., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the outer Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU 69 , a cold classical Kuiper Belt object approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. Such objects have never been substantially heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation. We describe initial results from these encounter observations. MU 69 is a bilobed contact binary with a flattened shape, discrete geological units, and noticeable albedo heterogeneity. However, there is little surface color or compositional heterogeneity. No evidence for satellites, rings or other dust structures, a gas coma, or solar wind interactions was detected. MU 69 's origin appears consistent with pebble cloud collapse followed by a low-velocity merger of its two lobes., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Pluto's atmosphere is cold and hazy. Recent observations have shown it to be much colder than predicted theoretically, suggesting an unknown cooling mechanism. Atmospheric gas molecules, particularly water vapour, have been proposed as a coolant; however, because Pluto's thermal structure is expected to be in radiative-conductive equilibrium, the required water vapour would need to be supersaturated by many orders of magnitude under thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. Here we report that atmospheric hazes, rather than gases, can explain Pluto's temperature profile. We find that haze particles have substantially larger solar heating and thermal cooling rates than gas molecules, dominating the atmospheric radiative balance from the ground to an altitude of 700 kilometres, above which heat conduction maintains an isothermal atmosphere. We conclude that Pluto's atmosphere is unique among Solar System planetary atmospheres, as its radiative energy equilibrium is controlled primarily by haze particles instead of gas molecules. We predict that Pluto is therefore several orders of magnitude brighter at mid-infrared wavelengths than previously thought-a brightness that could be detected by future telescopes.

The New Horizons spacecraft carried three instruments that measured the space environment near Pluto as it flew by on 14 July 2015. The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument revealed an interaction region confined sunward of Pluto to within about 6 Pluto radii. The region's surprisingly small size is consistent with a reduced atmospheric escape rate, as well as a particularly high solar wind flux. Observations from the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument suggest that ions are accelerated and/or deflected around Pluto. In the wake of the interaction region, PEPSSI observed suprathermal particle fluxes equal to about 1/10 of the flux in the interplanetary medium and increasing with distance downstream. The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, which measures grains with radii larger than 1.4 micrometers, detected one candidate impact in ±5 days around New Horizons' closest approach, indicating an upper limit of <4.6 kilometers(-3) for the dust density in the Pluto system., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

Observations made during the New Horizons flyby provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of Pluto's atmosphere. Whereas the lower atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 200 kilometers) is consistent with ground-based stellar occultations, the upper atmosphere is much colder and more compact than indicated by pre-encounter models. Molecular nitrogen (N2) dominates the atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 1800 kilometers or so), whereas methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), ethylene (C2H4), and ethane (C2H6) are abundant minor species and likely feed the production of an extensive haze that encompasses Pluto. The cold upper atmosphere shuts off the anticipated enhanced-Jeans, hydrodynamic-like escape of Pluto's atmosphere to space. It is unclear whether the current state of Pluto's atmosphere is representative of its average state--over seasonal or geologic time scales., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a water-ice crust, geologically young surface units, surface ice convection, wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow. Pluto's atmosphere is highly extended, with trace hydrocarbons, a global haze layer, and a surface pressure near 10 microbars. Pluto's diverse surface geology and long-term activity raise fundamental questions about how small planets remain active many billions of years after formation. Pluto's large moon Charon displays tectonics and evidence for a heterogeneous crustal composition; its north pole displays puzzling dark terrain. Small satellites Hydra and Nix have higher albedos than expected., (Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

We report far-ultraviolet observations of Jupiter's moon Europa taken by Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in January and February 2014 to test the hypothesis that the discovery of a water vapor aurora in December 2012 by local hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) emissions with the STIS originated from plume activity possibly correlated with Europa's distance from Jupiter through tidal stress variations. The 2014 observations were scheduled with Europa near the apocenter similar to the orbital position of its previous detection. Tensile stresses on south polar fractures are expected to be highest in this orbital phase, potentially maximizing the probability for plume activity. No local H and O emissions were detected in the new STIS images. In the south polar region where the emission surpluses were observed in 2012, the brightnesses are sufficiently low in the 2014 images to be consistent with any H2O abundance from (0-5)×10(15) cm(-2). Large high-latitude plumes should have been detectable by the STIS, independent of the observing conditions and geometry. Because electron excitation of water vapor remains the only viable explanation for the 2012 detection, the new observations indicate that although the same orbital position of Europa for plume activity may be a necessary condition, it is not a sufficient condition. However, the December 2012 detection of coincident HI Lyman-α and OI 1304-Å emission surpluses in an ∼200-km high region well separated above Europa's limb is a firm result and not invalidated by our 2014 STIS observations.

In November and December 2012, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaged Europa's ultraviolet emissions in the search for vapor plume activity. We report statistically significant coincident surpluses of hydrogen Lyman-α and oxygen OI 130.4-nanometer emissions above the southern hemisphere in December 2012. These emissions were persistently found in the same area over the 7 hours of the observation, suggesting atmospheric inhomogeneity; they are consistent with two 200-km-high plumes of water vapor with line-of-sight column densities of about 10(20) per square meter. Nondetection in November 2012 and in previous HST images from 1999 suggests varying plume activity that might depend on changing surface stresses based on Europa's orbital phases. The plume was present when Europa was near apocenter and was not detected close to its pericenter, in agreement with tidal modeling predictions.

The middle atmospheres of planets are driven by a combination of radiative heating and cooling, mean meridional motions, and vertically propagating waves (which originate in the deep troposphere). It is very difficult to model these effects and, therefore, observations are essential to advancing our understanding of atmospheres. The equatorial stratospheres of Earth and Jupiter oscillate quasi-periodically on timescales of about two and four years, respectively, driven by wave-induced momentum transport. On Venus and Titan, waves originating from surface-atmosphere interaction and inertial instability are thought to drive the atmosphere to rotate more rapidly than the surface (superrotation). However, the relevant wave modes have not yet been precisely identified. Here we report infrared observations showing that Saturn has an equatorial oscillation like those found on Earth and Jupiter, as well as a mid-latitude subsidence that may be associated with the equatorial motion. The latitudinal extent of Saturn's oscillation shows that it obeys the same basic physics as do those on Earth and Jupiter. Future highly resolved observations of the temperature profile together with modelling of these three different atmospheres will allow us determine the wave mode, the wavelength and the wave amplitude that lead to middle atmosphere oscillation.

Saturn's moon Rhea had been considered massive enough to retain a thin, externally generated atmosphere capable of locally affecting Saturn's magnetosphere. The Cassini spacecraft's in situ observations reveal that energetic electrons are depleted in the moon's vicinity. The absence of a substantial exosphere implies that Rhea's magnetospheric interaction region, rather than being exclusively induced by sputtered gas and its products, likely contains solid material that can absorb magnetospheric particles. Combined observations from several instruments suggest that this material is in the form of grains and boulders up to several decimetres in size and orbits Rhea as an equatorial debris disk. Within this disk may reside denser, discrete rings or arcs of material.

The New Horizons (NH) spacecraft observed Io's aurora in eclipse on four occasions during spring 2007. NH Alice ultraviolet spectroscopy and concurrent Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet imaging in eclipse investigate the relative contribution of volcanoes to Io's atmosphere and its interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. Auroral brightness and morphology variations after eclipse ingress and egress reveal changes in the relative contribution of sublimation and volcanic sources to the atmosphere. Brightnesses viewed at different geometries are best explained by a dramatic difference between the dayside and nightside atmospheric density. Far-ultraviolet aurora morphology reveals the influence of plumes on Io's electrodynamic interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. Comparisons to detailed simulations of Io's aurora indicate that volcanoes supply 1 to 3% of the dayside atmosphere.

Temperatures obtained from early Cassini infrared observations of Titan show a stratopause at an altitude of 310 kilometers (and 186 kelvin at 15 degrees S). Stratospheric temperatures are coldest in the winter northern hemisphere, with zonal winds reaching 160 meters per second. The concentrations of several stratospheric organic compounds are enhanced at mid- and high northern latitudes, and the strong zonal winds may inhibit mixing between these latitudes and the rest of Titan. Above the south pole, temperatures in the stratosphere are 4 to 5 kelvin cooler than at the equator. The stratospheric mole fractions of methane and carbon monoxide are (1.6 +/- 0.5) x 10(-2) and (4.5 +/- 1.5) x 10(-5), respectively.

Stratospheric temperatures on Saturn imply a strong decay of the equatorial winds with altitude. If the decrease in winds reported from recent Hubble Space Telescope images is not a temporal change, then the features tracked must have been at least 130 kilometers higher than in earlier studies. Saturn's south polar stratosphere is warmer than predicted from simple radiative models. The C/H ratio on Saturn is seven times solar, twice Jupiter's. Saturn's ring temperatures have radial variations down to the smallest scale resolved (100 kilometers). Diurnal surface temperature variations on Phoebe suggest a more porous regolith than on the jovian satellites.

The Composite Infrared Spectrometer observed Jupiter in the thermal infrared during the swing-by of the Cassini spacecraft. Results include the detection of two new stratospheric species, the methyl radical and diacetylene, gaseous species present in the north and south auroral infrared hot spots; determination of the variations with latitude of acetylene and ethane, the latter a tracer of atmospheric motion; observations of unexpected spatial distributions of carbon dioxide and hydrogen cyanide, both considered to be products of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts; characterization of the morphology of the auroral infrared hot spot acetylene emission; and a new evaluation of the energetics of the northern auroral infrared hot spot.

The atmosphere of Jupiter's satellite Io is extremely tenuous, time variable and spatially heterogeneous. Only a few molecules--SO2, SO and S2--have previously been identified as constituents of this atmosphere, and possible sources include frost sublimation, surface sputtering and active volcanism. Io has been known for almost 30 years to be surrounded by a cloud of Na, which requires an as yet unidentified atmospheric source of sodium. Sodium chloride has been recently proposed as an important atmospheric constituent, based on the detection of chlorine in Io's plasma torus and models of Io's volcanic gases. Here we report the detection of NaCl in Io's atmosphere; it constitutes only approximately 0.3% when averaged over the entire disk, but is probably restricted to smaller regions than SO2 because of its rapid photolysis and surface condensation. Although the inferred abundance of NaCl in volcanic gases is lower than predicted, those volcanic emissions provide an important source of Na and Cl in Io's neutral clouds and plasma torus.

Well-resolved far-ultraviolet spectroscopic images of O I, S I, and previously undetected H ILyman-alpha emission from Io were obtained with the Hubble space telescope imaging spectrograph (STIS). Detected O I and S I lines (1250 to 1500 angstroms) have bright equatorial spots (up to 2.5 kilorayleighs) that shift position with jovian magnetic field orientation; limb glow that is brighter on the hemisphere facing the jovian magnetic equator; and faint diffuse emission extending to approximately 20 Io radii. All O I and S I features brightened by approximately 50 percent in the last two images, concurrently with a ground-based observation of increased iogenic [O I] 6300-angstrom emission. The H ILyman-alpha emission, consisting of a small, approximately 2-kilorayleigh patch near each pole, has a different morphology and time variation.

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. 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. The lighter H2 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 O2 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.

The global hydrogen Lyman alpha, helium (584 angstroms), and molecular hydrogen band emissions from Saturn are qualitatively similar to those of Jupiter, but the Saturn observations emphasize that the H(2) band excitation mechanism is closely related to the solar flux. Auroras occur near 80 degrees latitude, suggesting Earth-like magnetotail activity, quite different from the dominant Io plasma torus mechanism at Jupiter. No ion emissions have been detected from the magnetosphere of Saturn, but the rings have a hydrogen atmosphere; atomic hydrogen is also present in a torus between 8 and 25 Saturn radii. Nitrogen emission excited by particles has been detected in the Titan dayglow and bright limb scans. Enhancement of the nitrogen emission is observed in the region of interaction between Titan's atmosphere and the corotating plasma in Saturn's plasmasphere. No particle-excited emission has been detected from the dark atmosphere of Titan. The absorption profile of the atmosphere determined by the solar occultation experiment, combined with constraints from the dayglow observations and temperature information, indicate that N(2) is the dominant species. A double layer structure has been detected above Titan's limb. One of the layers may be related to visible layers in the images of Titan.

Combined analysis of helium (584 angstroms) airglow and the atmospheric occultations of the star delta Scorpii imply a vertical mixing parameter in Saturn's upper atmosphere of K (eddy diffusion coefficient) approximately 8 x 10(7) square centimeters per second, an order of magnitude more vigorous than mixing in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Atmospheric H(2) band absorption of starlight yields a preliminary temperature of 400 K in the exosphere and a temperature near the homopause of approximately 200 K. The energy source for the mid-latitude H(2) band emission still remains a puzzle. Certain auroral emissions can be fully explained in terms of electron impact on H(2), and auroral morphology suggests a link between the aurora and the Saturn kilometric radiation. Absolute optical depths have been determined for the entire C ring andparts of the A and B rings. A new eccentric ringlet has been detected in the C ring. The extreme ultraviolet reflectance of the rings is fairly uniform at 3.5 to 5 percent. Collisions may control the distribution of H in Titan's H torus, which has a total vertical extent of approximately 14 Saturn radii normal to the orbit plane.

Observations of the optical extreme ultraviolet spectrum of the Jupiter planetary system during the Voyager 1 encounter have revealed previously undetected physical processes of significant proportions. Bright emission lines of S III, S IV, and O III indicating an electron temperature of 10(5) K have been identified in preliminary analyses of the Io plasma torus spectrum. Strong auroral atomic and molecular hydrogen emissions have been observed in the polar regions of Jupiter near magnetic field lines that map the torus into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The observed resonance scattering of solar hydrogen Lyman alpha by the atmosphere of Jupiter and the solar occultation experiment suggest a hot thermosphere (>/= 1000 K) wvith a large atomic hydrogen abundance. A stellar occultation by Ganymede indicates that its atmosphere is at most an exosphere.

Results from the occultation of the sun by Neptune imply a temperature of 750 +/- 150 kelvins in the upper levels of the atmosphere (composed mostly of atomic and molecular hydrogen) and define the distributions of methane, acetylene, and ethane at lower levels. The ultraviolet spectrum of the sunlit atmosphere of Neptune resembles the spectra of the Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus atmospheres in that it is dominated by the emissions of H Lyman alpha (340 +/- 20 rayleighs) and molecular hydrogen. The extreme ultraviolet emissions in the range from 800 to 1100 angstroms at the four planets visited by Voyager scale approximately as the inverse square of their heliocentric distances. Weak auroral emissions have been tentatively identified on the night side of Neptune. Airglow and occultation observations of Triton's atmosphere show that it is composed mainly of molecular nitrogen, with a trace of methane near the surface. The temperature of Triton's upper atmosphere is 95 +/- 5 kelvins, and the surface pressure is roughly 14 microbars.

Data from solar and stellar occultations of Uranus indicate a temperature of about 750 kelvins in the upper levels of the atmosphere (composed mostly of atomic and molecular hydrogen) and define the distributions of methane and acetylene in the lower levels. The ultraviolet spectrum of the sunlit hemisphere is dominated by emissions from atomic and molecular hydrogen, which are kmown as electroglow emissions. The energy source for these emissions is unknown, but the spectrum implies excitation by low-energy electrons (modeled with a 3-electron-volt Maxwellian energy distribution). The major energy sink for the electrons is dissociation of molecular hydrogen, producing hydrogen atoms at a rate of 10(29) per second. Approximately half the atoms have energies higher than the escape energy. The high temperature of the atmosphere, the small size of Uranus, and the number density of hydrogen atoms in the thermosphere imply an extensive thermal hydrogen corona that reduces the orbital lifetime of ring particles and biases the size distribution toward larger particles. This corona is augmented by the nonthermal hydrogen atoms associated with the electroglow. An aurora near the magnetic pole in the dark hemisphere arises from excitation of molecular hydrogen at the level where its vertical column abundance is about 10(20) per square centimeter with input power comparable to that of the sunlit electroglow (approximately 2x10(11) watts). An initial estimate of the acetylene volume mixing ratio, as judged from measurements of the far ultraviolet albedo, is about 2 x 10(-7) at a vertical column abundance of molecular hydrogen of 10(23) per square centimeter (pressure, approximately 0.3 millibar). Carbon emissions from the Uranian atmosphere were also detected.

Extreme ultraviolet spectral observations of the Jovian planetary system made during the Voyager 2 encounter have extended our knowledge of many of the phenomena and physical processes discovered by the Voyager 1 ultraviolet spectrometer. In the 4 months between encounters, the radiation from Io's plasma torus has increased in intensity by a factor of about 2. This change was accompanied by a decrease in plasma temperature of about 30 percent. The high-latitude auroral zones have been positively associated with the magnetic projection of the plasma torus onto the planet. Emission in molecular hydrogen bands has been detected from the equatorial regions of Jupiter, indicating planetwide electron precipitation. Hydrogen Lyman alpha from the dark side of the planet has been measured at an intensity of about 1 kilorayleigh. An observation of the occultation of alpha Leonis by Jupiter was carried out successfully and the data are being analyzed in detail.