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Science 15 December 1989:
Vol. 246. no. 4936, pp. 1459 - 1466
DOI: 10.1126/science.246.4936.1459
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Articles

Ultraviolet Spectrometer Observations of Neptune and Triton

A. L. Broadfoot 1, S. K. Atreya 2, J. L. Bertaux 3, J. E. Blamont 3, A. J. Dessler 4, T. M. Donahue 2, W. T. Forrester 1, D. T. Hall 1, F. Herbert 1, J. B. Holberg 1, D. M. Hunter 1, V. A. Krasnopolsky 5, S. Linick 6, J. I. Lunine 1, J. C. McConnell 7, H. W. Moos 8, B. R. Sandel 1, N. M. Schneider 1, D. E. Shemansky 1, G. R. Smith 9, D. F. Strobel 8, and R. V. Yelle 1

1 University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ 85721
2 Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
3 Service d'Aeronomie du CNRS, 91370 Verrieres-le-Buisson, France
4 Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251
5 Space Research Institute, 117810 Moscow, U.S.S.R.
6 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109
7 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
8 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
9 Northwest College, Powell, WY 82435

Results from the occultation of the sun by Neptune imply a temperature of 750 ± 150 kelvins in the upper levels of the atmosphere (composed mostly of atomic and molecular hydrogen) and define the distributions of methane, acetylene, and ethane at lower levels. The ultraviolet spectrum of the sunlit atmosphere of Neptune resembles the spectra of the Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus atmospheres in that it is dominated by the emissions of H Lyman agr (340 ± 20 rayleighs) and molecular hydrogen. The extreme ultraviolet emissions in the range from 800 to 1100 angstroms at the four planets visited by Voyager scale approximately as the inverse square of their heliocentric distances. Weak auroral emissions have been tentatively identified on the night side of Neptune. Airglow and occultation observations of Triton's atmosphere show that it is composed mainly of molecular nitrogen, with a trace of methane near the surface. The temperature of Triton's upper atmosphere is 95 ± 5 kelvins, and the surface pressure is roughly 14 microbars.

Submitted on October 31, 1989
Accepted on November 15, 1989


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