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Detection of exospheric O2+at Saturn's moon Dione

Tokar, R.L. and Johnson, R.E. and Thomsen, M.F. and Sittler, E.C. and Coates, Andrew J. and Wilson, R.J. and Crary, F.J. and Young, D.T. and Jones, Geraint H. (2012) Detection of exospheric O2+at Saturn's moon Dione. Geophysical Research Letters 39 (3), ISSN 0094-8276.

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Abstract

[1] 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.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Dione, exosphere
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
Depositing User: Administrator
Date Deposited: 28 Nov 2014 11:07
Last Modified: 11 Apr 2025 18:41
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/11161

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