Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Oct 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dps....32.3514b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #32, #35.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1060
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Observations have shown that Europa's atmosphere contains atomic sodium (Brown and Hill, 1996). The origin of this Na is still under investigation. There are two possible sources: (1) exogenic: implantation on Europa's surface from Io, or (2) endogenic: originating from Europa's surface ice, indicating a saline H2O-ice rather than pure H2O-ice surface. Recent work has demonstrated that the desorption rate of Na from Europa's surface is larger than the rate of implantation of Na from Io (Johnson, 2000); therefore suggesting that the Na source is endogenic. Experimental work has been conducted showing that endogenic Na desorbs from a surface by one or both of the following processes: (1) heavy ion bombardment (Benninghoven, 1969), and/or (2) UV irradiation (Yakshinskiy and Madey, 1999). However, neither of these processes were directly applied to a Europa simulant or conducted under Europa-like conditions. We are currently conducting experiments to determine if UV irradiation alone, at levels appropriate to Europa, will produce Na in the atmosphere. We simulate Europa's surface, using H2O-ice doped with salts (McCord, 1998). This simulant is exposed to Europa-like conditions in a high vacuum, cryogenic chamber and then irradiated with a UV light source. We use a quadrupole mass spectrometer to study the resulting atmosphere. Results will be reported at the meeting.
Bruesch Lindsey S.
Green John R.
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