Search for PH3 in the Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune at Millimeter Wavelength

Details Search for PH3 in the Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune at Millimeter Wavelength Search for PH3 in the Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune at Millimeter Wavelength

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2802m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #28.02

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Phosphine (PH3) has been detected in Jupiter and Saturn more than 30 years ago. As a disequilibrium specie, its abundance at observable levels (1-2 bars) reflects both the deep abundance of phosphorus and the strength of the convective transport. Phosphorus has solar value on Jupiter, but is enriched over solar value in Saturn by a factor 5.
The same is expected on Uranus and Neptune, but phosphine has not been detected yet in these icy giants.
We present here a search for PH3(J=1-0) in the millimeter range at 266.9 GHz, performed at the IRAM-30m radiotelescope, between June 24 and 27, 2009. The idea was to take advantage of the broadband (4 GHz coverage) of the new EMIR receptors to sample the expected very large absorption line (FWHM 20 GHz). The observational strategy has consisted in several receiver tunings over 250-290 GHz. This technique has been used successfully in the past to measure the broad CO (FWHM 4 GHz) absorption line in Neptune at the 30m telescope (Lellouch etal 2005).
In a preliminary data reduction analysis, there is no evidence of broad absorption line on both planets, impliying an upper limit of about 0.1 times the solar P/H value, much less than expected.
Observations and radiative transfer computations will be presented.

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