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Science 5 October 1973:
Vol. 182. no. 4107, pp. 53 - 55
DOI: 10.1126/science.182.4107.53
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Articles

An Atmosphere on Ganymede from Its Occultation of SAO 186800 on 7 June 1972

R. W. Carlson 1, J. C. Bhattacharyya 2, B. A. Smith 3, T. V. Johnson 4, B. Hidayat 5, S. A. Smith 6, G. E. Taylor 7, B. O'Leary 8, and R. T. Brinkmann 9

1 Department of Physics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90007
2 Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kodaikanal, India
3 Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, University Park 88001
4 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 91103
5 Bosscha Observatory, Lembang, Java, Indonesia
6 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91109
7 Royal Greenwich Observatory, Hailsham, Sussex, England
8 San Francisco State College, San Francisco, California 94132
9 Lunar Science Institute, Houston, Texas 77058

On 7 June 1972 the third , Jovian satellite Ganymede occulted the eighth-magnitude star SAO 186800. Successful photoelectric observations obtained at Lembang, Java (Indonesia), and Kavalur, India, show nonabrupt immersions and emersions, indicating the presence of an atmosphere whose surface pressure is greater than about 10-3 millibar. By fitting the two occultation durations as chords to a model disk, the diameter is found to be 5270 (+30, -sim200) kilometers, the major error contribution arising from the uncertain atmospheric thickness below the occultation layer. The derived mean density is 2.0 (-0.03, + sim0.2) grams per cubic centimeter.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Erosion of Galilean Satellite Surfaces by Jovian Magnetosphere Particles.
R. E. Johnson, R. E. JOHNSON, L. J. LANZEROTTI, W. L. BROWN, and T. P. ARMSTRONG (1981)
Science 212, 1027-1030
   Abstract »    PDF »
Extreme Ultraviolet Observations from Voyager 1 Encounter with Jupiter.
A. L. BROADFOOT, M. J. S. BELTON, P. Z. TAKACS, B. R. SANDEL, D. E. SHEMANSKY, J. B. HOLBERG, J. M. AJELLO, S. K. ATREYA, T. M. DONAHUE, H. W. Moos, et al. (1979)
Science 204, 979-982
   Abstract »    PDF »
Ganymede: Observations by Radar.
R. M. Goldstein and G. A. Morris (1975)
Science 188, 1211-1212
   Abstract »    PDF »


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