Related papers: Europa's Optical Aurora
The tenuous atmospheres of the Galilean satellites are sourced from their surfaces and produced by a combination of plasma-surface interactions and thermal processes. Though thin, these atmospheres can be studied via their auroral…
We report results of a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) campaign with the Advanced Camera for Surveys to observe Europa at eastern elongation, i.e. Europa's leading side, on 2008 June 29. With five consecutive HST orbits, we constrain Europa's…
An image of Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emission from Europa obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) has previously provided the first evidence of localized water vapor (H$_2$O) aurora,…
We constrain Europa's tenuous atmosphere on the subsolar hemisphere by combining two sets of observations: oxygen emissions at 1304 {\AA} and 1356 {\AA} from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectral images, and Galileo magnetic field…
We observed Io's optical aurora in eclipse on six nights between 2022 and 2024 using Keck I/HIRES. Spectra revealed 13 new auroral emissions not identified previously, tripling the total number of optical emissions lines detected at Io.…
In-situ plasma measurements as well as remote mapping of energetic neutral atoms around Jupiter provide indirect evidence that an enhancement of neutral gas is present near the orbit of the moon Europa. Simulations suggest that such a…
The surface of Europa is geologically young and shows signs of current activity. Studying it from a photometric point of view gives us insight on its physical state. We used a collection of 57 images from Voyager's Imaging Science System…
H$_2$O$_2$ is part of Europa's water-ice radiolytic cycle and a potential source of oxidants to Europa's subsurface ocean. However, factors controlling the concentration of this critical surface species remain unclear. Though laboratory…
Auroras are emissions in a planetary atmosphere caused by its interactions with the surrounding plasma environment. They have been observed in most planets and some moons of the solar system. Since their first discovery in 2005, Mars…
We have discovered that Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are bright around 1.5 {\mu}m even when not directly lit by sunlight, based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Subaru Telescope. The observations were conducted with…
Remote sensing observations indicate that Europa is surrounded by a tenuous atmosphere. Furthermore, recent observations and historic data from Galileo hint at the occurrence of water vapour eruptions originating from the interior that…
OO Aql is a rare W UMa-type eclipsing binary in which the two solar-type stars may have only recently evolved into contact. The binary has an unusually high mass ratio (0.84), and a relatively long orbital period (0.506 d) for it spectral…
Opacity is a property of many plasmas, and it is normally expected that if an emission line in a plasma becomes optically thick, its intensity ratio to that of another transition that remains optically thin should decrease. However,…
Europa, Jupiter's second Galilean moon, is believed to host a subsurface ocean in contact with a rocky mantle, where hydrothermal activity may drive the synthesis of organic molecules. Of these molecules, abiotic synthesis of aromatic amino…
The early prediction and subsequent detection of an O$_2$ atmosphere on Europa, coupled with the discovery that Europa has an ocean under its ice mantle, has made this moon a prime astrobiologic target, soon to be visited by the JUICE and…
Northern auroral regions of Earth were imaged with energetic photons in the 0.1-10 keV range using the High-Resolution Camera (HRC-I) aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory at 10 epochs (each ~20 min duration) between mid-December 2003 and…
Decline and recovery timescales surrounding eclipse are indicative of the controlling physical processes in Io's atmosphere. Recent studies have established that the majority of Io's molecular atmosphere, SO2 and SO, condenses during its…
The evolution of Europa's water-product exosphere over its 85-hour day, based on current models, has not been shown to exhibit any diurnal asymmetries. Here we simulate Europa's exosphere using a 3-D Monte Carlo routine including, for the…
We present results from Keck II observations of Europa over four consecutive nights using the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSPEC). Spectra were collected in the 3.14--4.0 micron range, allowing detection and monitoring of the 3.5 micron…
We benchmark new atomic data against a selection of irradiances obtained from medium-resolution quiet Sun spectra in the EUV, from 60 to 1040 \AA. We use as a baseline the irradiances measured during solar minimum on 2008 April 14 by the…