Project I: The Lyman-α shadow of moon Europa on planet Jupiter
Background: The four ‘Galilean moons’ of the planet Jupiter - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – are diverse and fascinating worlds. The innermost moon Io is the volcanically most active body in the Solar System. The three outer moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto harbor gigantic liquid water oceans under their ice crusts. Europa: The moon Europa is known for its icy surface with a subsurface liquid water ocean possibly able to sustain life. This makes Europa one of the most interesting planetary object in the solar system, and the recent detections of water plumes emitted from the moon's surface fueled the interest for further exploration of the moon by an orbital probe.
Project: During a far-ultraviolet imaging observation by the Hubble Space Telescope, Europa’s shadow on 7.0
Jupiter in the hydrogen Lyman-α lights from the Sun 6.6 was accidentally observed, see figure. This is the first observation ever of this kind. In the project, you will 6.2 analyze two exposures of the shadow and look for
absorption by Europa’s oxygen atmosphere and 5.8 kRayleigh possibly by localized water vapor plumes. A large part of the project will consist of data analysis. In the 5.4 first step, the candidate learns to process and analyze the original HST data to generate time- 5.0 series, spectra and images. In the second part, the Figure 1. Shadow of Europa (circle) on Jupiter’s analyzed data are interpreted by applying simple clouds (red) in Lyman-α light observed by HST. theoretical models. The outcome of this Europa UV study will directly support the planning of two spacecraft missions that are currently prepared to fly to the Jupiter system and visit Europa: ESA’s “Jupiter Icy moon Explorer” and in particular the NASA’s multi-flyby “Europa Clipper” mission. A basic understanding of the concepts of electromagnetic radiation, astrophysical observing methods and atmospheric and plasma physics are desired.
More information on KTH and the Space and Plasma physics research: KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has grown to become one of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities. We are Sweden’s largest technical research and learning institution and home to students, researchers and faculty from around the world. Our research and education cover a wide area including natural sciences and all branches of engineering, as well as in architecture, industrial management, urban planning, history and philosophy. In the Space and Plasma Physics division of KTH, we study the physics of open space, mainly the magnetic environments of the Earth, other planets, and the Sun. The near-Earth space is studied with a variety of methods like sounding rockets, balloon experiments, remote sensing instruments on the ground or satellites in orbit around Earth. The environments of the other planets are investigated either with observations from telescopes on the ground and in Earth- orbit, or with in-situ measurements by visiting spacecraft. The proposed project uses the large and renowned NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe the moons of Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System.
Supervisor at KTH: Lorenz Roth, [email protected], www.kth.se/profile/lorenzr/