Tentative Detection of Cyclopropenyl Ion Emissions in the Jovian Aurorae with IRTF/CSHELL Observations

Details Tentative Detection of Cyclopropenyl Ion Emissions in the Jovian Aurorae with IRTF/CSHELL Observations Tentative Detection of Cyclopropenyl Ion Emissions in the Jovian Aurorae with IRTF/CSHELL Observations

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.4104r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #41.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.558

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

NASA IRTF/CSHELL observations of Jupiter's IR emissions in bandpass 3.18 - 3.21 μm were obtained to search for emissions from a molecular hydrocarbon ion - cyclopropenyl, c-C3H3+. The thermospheric abundance of this ion is unknown. The effects of auroral ion deposition on the chemistry of Jupiter's upper atmosphere were investigated by Gladstone et al. 2000, who found that the cyclopropenyl ion is a stable end product to the reactions that likely form soot and thus haze in Jupiter's stratosphere. Cyclopropenyl's role in auroral chemistry is therefore potentially important, yet poorly studied. Our spectroscopic search for molecular c-C3H3+ emissions was enabled by recent determination of the vibrational energy levels and IR intensity of this molecule (Dopfer et al. 2001). Two half nights of CSHELL observations on 7 - 8 December 2003 were used to obtain spatially resolved long slit spectra of northern and southern auroral regions with resolving power 43,000 using a 0.5 arcsec wide by 30 arcsec long slit. Only H3+ emission lines in this spectral range were identified, but certain wavelengths were obscured by telluric absorption. Repeat observations 5 - 6 August 2005 were performed with Jupiter at a Doppler shift chosen to obtain these obscured wavelengths. A new emission feature at 3.1937 μm is reported here with a tentative identification of cyclopropenyl ion. An abundance of 0.001 times that of H3+ is inferred and would be constraining for auroral ion chemistry models, but better lab measurements of the IR intensity of lower energy vibrational transitions are likely required before they may be observed to provide the needed confirmation.

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