Upper Limits on Europa's Atmosphere from the Occultation of PPM 269153

Details Upper Limits on Europa's Atmosphere from the Occultation of PPM 269153 Upper Limits on Europa's Atmosphere from the Occultation of PPM 269153

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0418w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #04.18; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1073

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The occultation of PPM 269153 by Europa was observed at 3.5\mum\ with NSFCAM at the IRTF on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the night of June 28, 1996, UT. Emersion was observed with a time resolution of 0.033 seconds, giving a spatial resolution at Europa of approximately 4 km. Unfortunately, the immersion was missed (however, see Hubbard \etal., this conference). A preliminary reduction of the data using a software package originally written for lunar occultations is consistent with no atmosphere on Europa. The code allows for a finite bandpass, telescope size and stellar diameter. This preliminary result reveals that the diameter of the star (spectral class K) was about 0.55 +/- 0.03 mas. This is the smallest stellar diameter ever measured using the occultation technique. Using the model of French and Gierasch (Astron. J. 81, 1976), we find that our data are inconsistent with a surface pressure greater than ~ 0.25\mub, the actual value being dependent on composition and temperature assumed. This work supported by NASA Grant NAGW 1912 and by contributions of the Friends of Lowell Observatory.

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