The Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) is an

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiati ...

spectrograph An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mat ...

imager that will be flown on board the ''

Europa Clipper Europa Clipper (previously known as Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is an interplanetary mission in development by NASA comprising an orbiter. Planned for launch in October 2024, the spacecraft is being developed to study the Galilean moon Eu ...

'' mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. The Europa-UVS will be able to detect small erupting plumes and will provide data about the composition and dynamics of Europa's thin

exosphere The exosphere ( grc, ἔξω "outside, external, beyond", grc, σφαῖρα "sphere") is a thin, atmosphere-like volume surrounding a planet or natural satellite where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the densit ...

. The Principal Investigator is Kurt Retherford of the

Southwest Research Institute Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is an independent and nonprofit applied research and development (R&D) organization. Founded in 1947 by oil businessman Tom Slick, it provides contract research and develo ...

(SwRI), and the instrument engineer is Laura Jones-Wilson from JPL.

Overview

The Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph inherits technology from a series of successful ultraviolet imaging spectrographs ( ''Rosetta''-Alice, ''New Horizons''-Alice, ''LRO''-LAMP, ''Juno''-UVS and ''JUICE''-UVS). Europa-UVS observes photons in the 55-210 nm wavelength range, along a 7.5° slit. A radiation-hardened integrated circuit will be incorporated to meet the radiation requirements. The Europa-UVS offers additional capabilities to locate and characterize plumes erupting from Europa's surface. UVS will also investigate the composition and chemistry of Europa's atmosphere, its surface, and study how energy and mass flow around the moon and its environment. The instrument is a sensitive imaging spectrograph that can observe in the ultraviolet spectral range of 55 nm to 210 nm and can achieve a spectral resolution of <0.6 nm. The instrument does not contain a scan mirror, so the spacecraft must provide the maneuvering capability necessary to obtain complete spatial images of the moon.

Objectives

The science objectives of the Europa-UVS investigation are: *Determine the composition and chemistry, source and sinks, and structure and variability of Europa's atmosphere. *Search for and characterize active plumes in terms of global distribution, structure, composition, and variability. *Explore the surface composition and microphysics and their relation to endogenic and exogenic processes. *Investigate how energy and mass flow in the Europa atmosphere, neutral cloud and plasma torus, and footprint on

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

References

{{Satellite and spacecraft instruments Spacecraft instruments Europa (moon) Europa Clipper

Overview

Objectives

See also

References