A sublimated water atmosphere on Ganymede detected from Hubble Space Telescope observations

Abstract

Ganymede's atmosphere is produced by charged particle sputtering and sublimation of its icy surface. Previous far-ultraviolet observations of the O{\small I\,}1356-Å and O{\small I\,}1304-Å oxygen emissions were used to infer sputtered molecular oxygen (O$_2$) as an atmospheric constituent, but an expected sublimated water (H$_2$O) component remained undetected. Here we present an analysis of high-sensitivity spectra and spectral images acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope revealing H$_2$O in Ganymede's atmosphere. The relative intensity of the oxygen emissions requires contributions from dissociative excitation of water vapor, indicating that H$_2$O is more abundant than O$_2$ around the sub-solar point. Away from the sub-solar region, the emissions are consistent with a pure O$_2$ atmosphere. Eclipse observations constrain atomic oxygen to be at least two orders of magnitude less abundant than these other species. The higher H$_2$O/O$_2$ ratio above the warmer trailing hemisphere compared to the colder leading hemisphere, the spatial concentration to the sub-solar region, and the estimated abundance of $\sim$10$^{15}$ H$_2$O/cm$^{2}$ are consistent with sublimation of the icy surface as source.