Stability of an oxygen atmosphere on Ganymede

Details Stability of an oxygen atmosphere on Ganymede Stability of an oxygen atmosphere on Ganymede

Jan 1977

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1977icar...30...97y&link_type=abstract

Icarus, vol. 30, Jan. 1977, p. 97-103. Research supported by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

17

Atmospheric Models, Ganymede, Oxygen, Photolysis, Planetary Atmospheres, Water Vapor, Chemical Reactions, Evolution, Photodissociation, Steady State

Scientific paper

The presence of water ice on the surface of Ganymede is noted, and the chemical evolution of a model atmosphere for this satellite is analyzed on the assumption that such evolution is driven by dissociation of water. Results presented for the upper and lower regions of the atmosphere indicate that an oxygen atmosphere with a surface pressure as high as 0.001 mb could develop in a period as short as 10,000 yr due to photolysis of water and the subsequent escape of hydrogen, that the source of oxygen would decline as the atmosphere became optically thick to wavelengths that dissociate water, and that the system should approach a steady state where the production of O2 by a reaction between O and OH would be balanced by the escape of O, with fast atoms released by photodecomposition of exospheric O2. It is shown that, in equilibrium, Ganymede's atmosphere might contain O2 concentrations similar to those on Mars as well as a large and perhaps detectable concentration of O3. It is concluded that an appreciable oxygen atmosphere could also have developed on Callisto.

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