| タイトル | X-MIME: An Imaging X-ray Spectrometer for Detailed Study of Jupiter's Icy Moons and the Planet's X-ray Aurora |
| 著者（英） | Elsner, R. F.; Swartz, D. A.; Johnson, R. E.; Waite, J. H.; Rehak, P.; Cooper, J. F.; Ramsey, B. D. |
| 著者所属（英） | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |
| 発行日 | 2004-01-01 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | Remote observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton Observatory have shown that the Jovian system is a source of x-rays with a rich and complicated structure. The planet's polar auroral zones and its disk are powerful sources of x-ray emission. Chandra observations revealed x-ray emission from the Io Plasma Torus and from the Galilean moons Io, Europa, and possibly Ganymede. The emission from these moons is certainly due to bombardment of their surfaces of highly energetic protons, oxygen and sulfur ions from the region near the Torus exciting atoms in their surfaces and leading to fluorescent x-ray emission lines. Although the x-ray emission from the Galilean moons is faint when observed from Earth orbit, an imaging x-ray spectrometer in orbit around these moons, operating at 200 eV and above with 150 eV energy resolution, would provide a detailed mapping (down to 40 m spatial resolution) of the elemental composition in their surfaces. Such maps would provide important constraints on formation and evolution scenarios for the surfaces of these moons. Here we describe the characteristics of X-MIME, an imaging x-ray spectrometer under going a feasibility study for the JIMO mission, with the ultimate goal of providing unprecedented x-ray studies of the elemental composition of the surfaces of Jupiter's icy moons and Io, as well as of Jupiter's auroral x-ray emission. |
| NASA分類 | Instrumentation and Photography |
| 権利 | Copyright |
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