Pluto is classified as a Kuiper Belt Object and therefore listed on the
Planetoids page.
↓ Satellite Atmospheres ↓
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RECENT DETECTIONS OR NON-DETECTIONS |
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SO2, OCS, H2S non-detections on Mars (Feb 2022): "No detection of SO2, H2S, or OCS in the atmosphere of Mars from the first two Martian years of observations from TGO/ACS." Braude et al. A&A 658, A86 (2022). |
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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