Detection of exospheric O 2  +  at Saturn's moon Dione | Zendy

Tokar R. L. | Zendy; Johnson R. E. | Zendy; Thomsen M. F. | Zendy; Sittler E. C. | Zendy; Coates A. J. | Zendy; Wilson R. J. | Zendy; Crary F. J. | Zendy; Young D. T. | Zendy; Jones G. H. | Zendy

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Detection of exospheric O 2 + at Saturn's moon Dione

Author(s) -

Tokar R. L.,

Johnson R. E.,

Thomsen M. F.,

Sittler E. C.,

Coates A. J.,

Wilson R. J.,

Crary F. J.,

Young D. T.,

Jones G. H.

Publication year - 2012

Publication title -

geophysical research letters

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007

H-Index - 273

eISSN - 1944-8007

pISSN - 0094-8276

DOI - 10.1029/2011gl050452

Subject(s) - exosphere , saturn , physics , ion , astrobiology , plasma , astronomy , energetic neutral atom , planet , quantum mechanics

During a close pass of Cassini through the plasma wake of Saturn's moon Dione on April 7, 2010 the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected molecular oxygen ions (O 2 + ) on pick up ring velocity distributions, thus providing the first in situ detection of a neutral exosphere surrounding the icy moon. The density of O 2 + determined from the CAPS data ranges from 0.01 to 0.09 /cm 3 and is used to estimate the exosphere O 2 radial column density, obtaining the range 0.9 to 7 × 10 11 /cm 2 . CAPS was unable to directly detect pick up H 2 O + from the exosphere but the observations can be used to set an upper limit to their density of ∼10 times the O 2 + density.

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