UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Detection of exospheric O2+ at Saturn's moon Dione

Tokar, RL; Johnson, RE; Thomsen, MF; Sittler, EC; Coates, AJ; Wilson, RJ; Crary, FJ; ... Jones, GH; + view all (2012) Detection of exospheric O2+ at Saturn's moon Dione. Geophysical Research Letters , 39 (3) , Article L03105. 10.1029/2011GL050452. Green open access

[thumbnail of 2011GL050452.pdf]
Preview
PDF
2011GL050452.pdf
Available under License : See the attached licence file.

Download (556kB)

Abstract

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 (O2+) on pick up ring velocity distributions, thus providing the first in situ detection of a neutral exosphere surrounding the icy moon. The density of O2+ determined from the CAPS data ranges from 0.01 to 0.09 /cm3 and is used to estimate the exosphere O2 radial column density, obtaining the range 0.9 to 7 × 1011/cm2 . CAPS was unable to directly detect pick up H2O+ from the exosphere but the observations can be used to set an upper limit to their density of ∼10 times the O2+ density.

Type: Article
Title: Detection of exospheric O2+ at Saturn's moon Dione
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2011GL050452
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050452
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright 2012 by the American Geophysical Union
Keywords: Dione, Exosphere
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1343201
Downloads since deposit
202Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item