Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 3 February 1978:
Vol. 199. no. 4328, pp. 531 - 533
DOI: 10.1126/science.199.4328.531
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Images of Io's Sodium Cloud

DENNIS L. MATSON 1, BRUCE A. GOLDBERG 1, TORRENCE V. JOHNSON 1, and ROBERT W. CARLSON 1

1 Space Sciences Division, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 91103

The first direct images of Io's sodium cloud are reported and analyzed. The observed cloud extends for more than 105 kilometers along Io's orbit and is a somewhat "banana-shaped" partial toroid. More sodium atoms precede Io than follow it. A model based on the escape of sodium from a specific localized area on Io provides a reasonable fit to the observed intensity distribution whereas isotropic escape does not.

Submitted on August 2, 1977
Revised on October 11, 1977


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Io's Sodium Cloud.
B. A. Goldberg, G. W. Garneau, and S. K. LaVoie (1984)
Science 226, 512-516
   Abstract »    PDF »
Io: Longitudinal Distribution of Sulfur Dioxide Frost.
R. M. Nelson (1980)
Science 210, 784-786
   Abstract »    PDF »
Detection of Singly Ionized Oxygen Around Jupiter.
C. B. PILCHER and J. S. MORGAN (1979)
Science 205, 297-298
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)