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Detection of exospheric O2+ at Saturn's moon Dione

  1. R. L. Tokar1,
  2. R. E. Johnson2,
  3. M. F. Thomsen1,
  4. E. C. Sittler3,
  5. A. J. Coates4,
  6. R. J. Wilson5,
  7. F. J. Crary6,
  8. D. T. Young6,
  9. G. H. Jones4,7

Article first published online: 9 FEB 2012

DOI: 10.1029/2011GL050452

Issue

Geophysical Research Letters

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Information

How to Cite

Tokar, R. L., R. E. Johnson, M. F. Thomsen, E. C. Sittler, A. J. Coates, R. J. Wilson, F. J. Crary, D. T. Young, and G. H. Jones (2012), Detection of exospheric O2+ at Saturn's moon Dione, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L03105, doi:10.1029/2011GL050452.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Space Science and Applications, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

  2. 2

    Engineering Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

  3. 3

    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

  4. 4

    Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Dorking, UK

  5. 5

    Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  6. 6

    Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA

  7. 7

    Centre for Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birkbeck, London, UK

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 FEB 2012
  2. Article first published online: 9 FEB 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 10 JAN 2012
  4. Manuscript Revised: 9 JAN 2012
  5. Manuscript Received: 23 NOV 2011

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Keywords:

  • Dione;
  • exosphere

[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.

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