Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.5402d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #54.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1074
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The trailing hemisphere of Jupiter's moon Europa is bombarded by charged particles trapped within Jupiter's magnetosphere. Sulfur ion implantation and impacting energetic electrons strongly affect the surface chemistry of Europa. Understanding these processes is important for disentangling the extrinsic and intrinsic components of Europa's surface chemistry. In the sulfur cycle model of Carlson et al. (Science 286, 97, 1999), hydrated sulfuric acid represents the dominant reaction product of radiolytic surface modification processes on Europa. In recent compositional investigations employing linear mixture modeling, Dalton et al. (LPSC XV, #2511, 2009) and Shirley et al. (Icarus, in press, 2010) document a well-defined gradient of hydrated sulfuric acid abundance for a study area spanning the leading side - trailing side boundary in Argadnel Regio. Sulfuric acid hydrate abundance in this region increases toward the trailing side apex. Here we compare the derived sulfuric acid hydrate abundances at 41 locations on Europa's surface with independent model results describing 1) the sulfur ion flux (Hendrix et al., 2010, in preparation), and 2) the energetic electron flux, at the same locations. We improve upon the prior calculation of electron energy into the surface of Paranicas et al. (2009, in Europa, U. Arizona, p529; Pappalardo, McKinnon, & Khurana eds.) by incorporating a realistic pitch angle dependence of the distribution.
While the sulfur ion implantation and electron energy deposition model distributions differ in important details, both show trailing side gradients similar to that found for the sulfuric acid hydrate. Correlation coefficients exceed 0.9 in comparisons of each of these models with the sulfuric acid hydrate distribution. Our results support models in which the electron energy flux drives reactions that utilize implanted sulfur to produce sulfuric acid hydrate. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology-Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract with NASA's Outer Planets Research Program.
Cassidy Timothy A.
Dalton James Bradley
Paranicas Chris P.
Shirley James H.
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