Pluto is classified as a Kuiper Belt Object and therefore listed on the
Planetoids page.
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↓ Satellite Atmospheres ↓
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| RECENT DETECTIONS |
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| Phosphine detected on Venus (JUL): "Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus," Greaves et al. Nature Astron 5, 655-664 (2021). Please also see here for an extended summary of the efforts of Greaves at al. and currently available peer-reviewed work confirming and disconfirming the presence of phosphine on Venus and the implications thereof. |
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| AsH3 arsine | 
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| CH3 methyl radical |
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| CH4 methane |
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| C2H2 acetylene |
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| C2H4 ethylene |
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| C2H6 ethane |
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| C3H8 propane |
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| C3H4 propyne |
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| C4H2 diacetylene |
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| C6H6 benzene |
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| CO carbon monoxide |
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| CO+ ionized CO |
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| CO2 carbon dioxide |
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| CS carbon monosulfide |
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| ClO chlorine monoxide |
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| GeH4 germane |
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| H2 hydrogen |
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| HCN hydrogen cyanide |
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| HCl hydrogen chloride |
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| HF hydrogen fluoride |
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| H2O water |
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| H2S hydrogen sulfide |
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| H2S+ ionized H2S |
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| H2SO4 sulfuric acid |
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| N2 nitrogen |
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| NH3 ammonia |
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| NO nitric oxide |
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| N2O nitrous oxide |
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| O2 oxygen |
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| O3 ozone |
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| OCS carbonyl suifide |
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| PH3 phosphine |
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| S3 trisulur |
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| SO sulfur monoxide |
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| SO2 sulfur dioxide |
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| OSSO disulfur dioxide |
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SATELLITES For the most part, the moons of the solar system have very tenuous atmospheres
(known as exospheres) that consist of volatile molecules created when surface materials are subject to
irradiation by the solar wind or by ions accelerated by the magnetic field of the planet to which the satellite
belongs. The one moon with a dense atmosphere is Titan, where the pressure at the surface is about half again as
much as the pressure on Earth at sea level. Io has volcanoes that erupt gases into its atmosphere. Enceladus
has cryovolcanoes. NOTE: Cited species are in the gas phase unless indicated otherwise.
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| EARTH'S MOON (LUNA) | |
| Luna | CH4 (1975) CO2 (1975) NH3 (1975) H2O (2021) |
| MOONS OF JUPITER | |
| Callisto | H2O(s) (1973) CO2 (1992) O2 (2005) |
| Europa | H2O(s) (1973) O2 (1995) NaCl (2019) H2O (2020) |
| Ganymede | H2O(s) (1973) O2(s?) (1995) O3(s?) (1996) O2 (1998) |
| Io | SO2 (1990) SO (1996) S2 (2000) NaCl (2003) |
| MOONS OF SATURN | |
| Dione | O3 (1997) CO2 (2016) O2 (2016) |
| Enceladus |
H2O(s) (1977)
H2O2(s) (2007)
H2O2(s,disp) (2009)
CH3OH(s) (2021) |
| Rhea | O3 (1997) CO2 (2016) O2 (2016) N2H4 (2021) |
| Titan |
CH4 (1944)
C2H2 (1981)
C2H4 (1981)
C2H6 (1981)
HCN (1981)
N2 (1981) CH3CCH (1981) C4H2 (1981) HC3N (1981) C2N2 (1981) H2 (1981) CO (1983) H2O (1998) C6H6 (2003) C3H8 (2003) HNC (2011) C2H5CN (2015) C4N2(nd) (2015) H2CCCH2 (2019) c-C3H2 (2020) CH3C3N (2020) |
| MOONS OF URANUS | |
| Ariel | H2O(s) (1981) |
| Oberon | H2O(s) (1980) |
| Titania | H2O(s) (1980) |
| Umbriel | H2O(s) (1980) |
| MOONS OF NEPTUNE | |
| Triton | CH4 (1979) N2 (1989) CO (2010) |
| pink=tentative detection | |
| Acknowledgments |
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Listings of molecular species found in the atmospheres of the planets are taken in part from Photochemistry of Planetary Atmospheres by Y. L. Yung & W. B. DeMore (Oxford University Press, New York), 1999. Images of the planets are adapted from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton. Most of the satellite images are from the Solar Yearbook. |
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