UV Spectra of the Uranian Satellites, Ariel, Titania, and Oberon

Details UV Spectra of the Uranian Satellites, Ariel, Titania, and Oberon UV Spectra of the Uranian Satellites, Ariel, Titania, and Oberon

Jul 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997dps....29.2003r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #29, #20.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, p.1010

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Scientific paper

Using the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ultraviolet spectra were obtained for the Uranian satellites Ariel, Titania, and Oberon. The FOS data provide clear evidence for the presence of an ultraviolet absorber on these three bodies. FOS grating positions of G270 and G400 provided wavelength coverage of ~220-480 nanometers (nm) with a resolving power of ~4300-6400. The data were reduced to flux using the standard STScI data pipeline procedures. Prior to ratioing the fluxes to the solar spectrum(1) , narrow solar lines were used to fine-tune the wavelength positions; the largest shift of the observational data required was 0.16 nm. Spectral geometric albedos were calculated at the solar phase angle of the observations (alpha =0.8deg ) and are consistent with recently reported broad-band albedos(2) within the estimated uncertainties of the two data sets. The geometric albedos of Ariel, Titania, and Oberon all have a broad minimum located at 280+/-10 nm. The features are similar in position to those identified with SO_2 (280 nm) on the Jovian moons Europa(3,4) and Callisto(5,6) , although there is no apparent source of SO_2 molecules in the Uranian system. Another plausible material producing an absorption near 280 nm is OH, which is a photolysis and radiolysis by-product from H_2O(7) . Any OH formed will be more likely to be stable at the lower surface temperatures of the Uranian system than for the icy Jovian satellites(8) . None of these minima correspond to features near 260+/-5 nm, attributed to O_3 on the surfaces of Ganymede(9) , Rhea, and Dione(10) . (1) Colina, L. et al. (1996) AJ 112, 307. (2) Karkoschka, E. (1997) Icarus 125, 348. (3) Lane, A. et al. (1981) Nature 292, 38. (4) Noll, K. et al. (1995) JGR 100, 19,057. (5) Noll, K. et al. (1997) GRL 24, 1139. (6) Lane, A. & D. Domingue (1997) GRL 24, 1143. (7) Taub, I. & K. Eiben (1968) J. Chem. Phys. 49, 2,499. (8) Ghormley, J. & C. Hochanadel (1971) J. Chem. Phys. 75, 40. (9) Noll, K. et al. (1996) Science 273, 341. (10) Noll, K. et al. (1997) Nature, in press.

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