DPS Pasadena Meeting 2000, 23-27 October 2000 Session 34.
Galilean Satellites - Atmospheres and Tori  [Previous] |
[Session 34] | [Next]  [34.11] Europa and its sodium cloud  F.
Leblanc (Department of Astronomy and Engineering, University of
Virginia), M.E. Brown (Division of Geological and Planetary
Sciences, California Institute of Technology), R.E. Johnson
(Department of Astronomy and Engineering, University of
Virginia)  Recent observations made by Brown of the sodium
around Europa allow an accurate study of its origins. A 3-D
Monte Carlo simulation following the ejected atoms and sodium
bearing molecules from Europa's surface is presented. The
gravity fields of Europa and Jupiter, the thin O2 Europa
atmosphere, the ionization of the atoms and the dissociation of
the molecules by energetic electrons and the solar pressure are
taken into account in order to reproduce the particular
structure of the observed sodium cloud. From this work we can
obtain the composition and the energy distribution of the ejecte