Giant planets: Clues on current and past organic chemistry in the outer solar system

The giant planets of the outer solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - were formed in the same flattened disk of gas and dust, the solar nebula, as the terrestrial planets were. Yet, the giant planets differ in some very fundamental ways from the terrestrial planets. Despite enormous differences, the giant planets are relevant to exobiology in general and the origin of life on the Earth in particular. The giant planets are described as they are today. Their basic properties and the chemistry occurring in their atmospheres is discussed. Theories of their origin are explored and aspects of these theories that may have relevance to exobiology and the origin of life on Earth are stressed

HDO And SO2 Thermal Mapping On Venus II. The So2 Spatial Distribution Above And Within The Clouds

Sulfur dioxide and water vapor, two key species of Venus photochemistry, are known to exhibit significant spatial and temporal variations above the cloud top. In particular, ground-based thermal imaging spectroscopy at high spectral resolution, achieved on Venus in January 2012, has shown evidence for strong SO2 variations on timescales shorter than a day. We have continued our observing campaign using the TEXES high-resolution imaging spectrometer at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility to map sulfur dioxide over the disk of Venus at two different wavelengths, 7 mu m (already used in the previous study) and 19 mu m. The 7 mu m radiation probes the top of the H2SO4 cloud, while the 19 mu m radiation probes a few kilometers below within the cloud. Observations took place on October 4 and 5, 2012. Both HDO and SO2 lines are identified in our 7-mu m spectra and SO2 is also easily identified at 19 mu m. The CO2 lines at 7 and 19 mu m are used to infer the thermal structure. An isothermal/inversion layer is present at high latitudes (above 60 N and S) in the polar collars, which was not detected in October 2012. The enhancement of the polar collar in October 2012 is probably due to the fact that the morning terminator is observed, while the January data probed the evening terminator. As observed in our previous run, the HDO map is relatively uniform over the disk of Venus, with a mean mixing ratio of about 1 ppm. In contrast, the SO2 maps at 19 mu m show intensity variations by a factor of about 2 over the disk within the cloud, less patchy than observed at the cloud top at 7 mu m. In addition, the SO2 maps seem to indicate significant temporal changes within an hour. There is evidence for a cutoff in the SO2 vertical distribution above the cloud top, also previously observed by SPICAV/SOIR aboard Venus Express and predicted by photochemical models.NASA NNX-08AE38AIRTF AST-0607312, AST-0708074Astronom

The influence of thermospheric winds on the auroral red-line profile of atomic oxygen

The effect of thermospheric winds on the emission profile of [lambda]6300 is discussed. It is shown that meridional winds play a significant role in determining the shape of this emission and the conventional diffusion of O(1D) hypothesis, though important, is not adequate to explain the observed features completely.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33565/1/0000066.pd

The Jovian hydrogen bulge: Evidence for co-rotating magnetospheric convection

The hydrogen bulge is a feature in Jupiter's upper atmosphere that co-rotates with the planetary magnetic field (i.e. the hydrogen bulge is fixed in System III coordinates). It is located approximately 180[deg] removed in System III longitude from the active sector, which has been identified as the source region for Jovian decametric radio emission and for release of energetic electrons into interplanetary space. According to the magnetic-anomaly model, the active sector is produced by the effect of the large magnetic anomaly in Jupiter's northern hemisphere. On the basis of the magnetic-anomaly model, it has been theoretically expected for some time that a two-cell magnetospheric convection pattern exists within the Jovian magnetosphere. Because the convection pattern is established by magnetic-anomaly effects of the active sector, the pattern co-rotates with Jupiter. (This is in contrast to the Earth's two-cell convection pattern that is fixed relative to the Sun with the Earth rotating beneath it.) The sense of the convection is to bring hot magnetospheric plasma into the upper atmosphere in the longitude region of the hydrogen bulge. This hot plasma contains electrons with energies of the order of 100keV that dissociate atmospheric molecules to produce the atomic hydrogen that creates the observed longitudinal asymmetry in hydrogen Lyman alpha emission. We regard the existence of the hydrogen bulge as the best evidence available thus far for the reality of the expected co-rotating magnetospheric convection pattern.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24466/1/0000741.pd

Solar-driven variation in the atmosphere of Uranus

Long-term measurements (1972-2015) of the reflectivity of Uranus at 472 and 551 nm display variability that is incompletely explained by seasonal effects. Spectral analysis shows this non-seasonal variability tracks the 11-year solar cycle. Two mechanisms could cause solar modulation, (a) nucleation onto ions or electrons created by galactic cosmic rays (GCR), or (b) UV-induced aerosol colour changes. Ion-aerosol theory is used to identify expected relationships between reflectivity fluctuations and GCR flux, tested with multiple regression and compared to the linear response predicted between reflectivity and solar UV flux. The statistics show that 24% of the variance in reflectivity fluctuations at 472 nm is explained by GCR ion-induced nucleation, compared to 22% for a UV-only mechanism. Similar GCR-related variability exists in Neptune’s atmosphere, hence the effects found at Uranus provide the first example of common variability in two planetary atmospheres driven through energetic particle modulation by their host star

French Meteor Network for High Precision Orbits of Meteoroids

There is a lack of precise meteoroids orbit from video observations as most of the meteor stations use off-the-shelf CCD cameras. Few meteoroids orbit with precise semi-major axis are available using film photographic method. Precise orbits are necessary to compute the dust flux in the Earth s vicinity, and to estimate the ejection time of the meteoroids accurately by comparing them with the theoretical evolution model. We investigate the use of large CCD sensors to observe multi-station meteors and to compute precise orbit of these meteoroids. An ideal spatial and temporal resolution to get an accuracy to those similar of photographic plates are discussed. Various problems faced due to the use of large CCD, such as increasing the spatial and the temporal resolution at the same time and computational problems in finding the meteor position are illustrated

Laboratory Simulations of the Titan Surface to Elucidate the Huygens Probe GCMS Observations

The Cassini/Huygens mission has vastly increased the information we have available to stndy Satnro's moon Titan. The complete mission has included an array of observational methods including remote sensing techniques, upper atmosphere in-situ saropling, and the descent of the Huygens probe directly through the atmosphere to the surface [1,2]. The instruments on the Huygens probe remain the ouly source of in-situ measurements at the surface of Titan, and work evaluating these measurements to create a pict.rre of the surface environment is ongoing. In particular, the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) experiment on Huygens found that although there were no heavy hydrocarbons detected in the lower atmosphere, a rich spectrum of mass peaks arose once the probe landed on the surface [3,4], However, to date it has not been possible to extract the identity and abundances of the many minor components of the spectra due to a lack of temperatnre- and instrumentappropriate data for the relevant species. We are performing laboratory stndies designed to elucidate the spectrum collected on Titan's surface, utilizing a cryogenic charober maintained at appropriate temperature and pressure conditions. The experiments will simulate the temperatnre rise experienced by the surface, which led to an enhanced signal of volatiles detected by the Huygens GCMS. The objective of this study is to exaroine the characteristics of various surface analogs as measured by the Huygens GCMS flight spare instrument, which is currently housed in our laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). This identification cannot be adequately accomplished through theoretical work alone since the thermodynamic properties of many species at these temperatnres (94 K, HASI measurement [5]) are not known

Scientific rationale of a Saturn probe mission

We describe the main scientific goals to be addressed by future in situ exploration of Saturn

Possible thermochemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet GJ 436b

The nearby extrasolar planet GJ 436b--which has been labelled as a 'hot Neptune'--reveals itself by the dimming of light as it crosses in front of and behind its parent star as seen from Earth. Respectively known as the primary transit and secondary eclipse, the former constrains the planet's radius and mass, and the latter constrains the planet's temperature and, with measurements at multiple wavelengths, its atmospheric composition. Previous work using transmission spectroscopy failed to detect the 1.4-\mu m water vapour band, leaving the planet's atmospheric composition poorly constrained. Here we report the detection of planetary thermal emission from the dayside of GJ 436b at multiple infrared wavelengths during the secondary eclipse. The best-fit compositional models contain a high CO abundance and a substantial methane (CH4) deficiency relative to thermochemical equilibrium models for the predicted hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Moreover, we report the presence of some H2O and traces of CO2. Because CH4 is expected to be the dominant carbon-bearing species, disequilibrium processes such as vertical mixing and polymerization of methane into substances such as ethylene may be required to explain the hot Neptune's small CH4-to-CO ratio, which is at least 10^5 times smaller than predicted