Soft X-ray Emissions from Planets, Moons, and Comets
Abstract
A wide variety of solar system bodies are now known to radiate in the soft x-ray energy (<5 keV) regime. These include planets (Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars): bodies having thick atmospheres, with or without intrinsic magnetic field; planetary satellites (Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede): bodies with thin or no atmospheres; and comets and the Io plasma torus: bodies having extended tenuous atmospheres. Several different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the generation of soft x-rays from these objects, whereas in the hard x-ray energy range (>10 keV) x-rays result mainly from the electron bremsstrahlung process. In this paper we present a brief review of the x-ray observations on each of the planetary bodies and discuss their characteristics and proposed source mechanisms.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0209107,
title = {Soft X-ray Emissions from Planets, Moons, and Comets},
author = {A. Bhardwaj},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0209107},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
7 pages including 4 figures; Proc.36th ESLAB Symposium "Earth-Like Planets and Moons", June 3-8, 2002, ESTEC, The Netherlands, ESA SP-514, Ed. Bruce Battrick