Determining the Crustal Composition of io Through Atmospheric Spectroscopy

Details Determining the Crustal Composition of io Through Atmospheric Spectroscopy Determining the Crustal Composition of io Through Atmospheric Spectroscopy

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6840b&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6840

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #6840 Solar System

Scientific paper

Although silicate minerals are hypothesized to be the maincomponent of the crust of Io and the primary carrier of theheat flow from the interior to the surface, no evidence forsilicates has ever been seen on the surface of Io. Instead,the surface is dominated by sulfur, oxygen, and theircompounds. If silicates are the primary consitutent of Io'scrust, they must be almost totally covered. Voyager images doallow the possibility that a few bare silicate exposures existnear calderas and hot-spots, however. Sputtering of these baresilicates may inject silicon into Io's atmosphere in the samemanner that trace amounts of sodium and potassium aresputtered into the atmosphere. We estimate that 2516 Angstromsilicon emissions could be detected by the FOS even if thesurface coverage of exposed silicates were as low as 0.3%making such atmospheric spectroscopy the most sensitive methodof detecting evidence for silicates on Io. We propose tosearch the atmosphere of Io for Si.Assuming reasonable abundances, these observations will alsoalmost certainly produce the first detections of neutral andionized magnesium from Io, at 2852Angstrom and 2795 and2809Angstrom, respectively. Magnesium would be the first non-alkali trace element detected on Io, and its abundance willprovide important clues to the distribution of trace materialson the satellite and ions in the magnetosphere.

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