Ammonium Hydrosulfide and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Abstract:

The color and composition of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) has been debated for more than a century. While there are numerous hypotheses for the origin of Jupiter’s GRS, recent work suggests that the GRS’s color could originate from multiple components (Carlson et al., 2012; Simon et al., submitted). In light of this, we have recently begun conducting in situ laboratory experiments that test whether ammonium hydrosulfide, NH₄SH, or its radiation decomposition products contribute to the GRS spectrum. In this presentation, we will discuss some of our most recent results, where we have studied the stability of NH₄SH samples as a function of temperature using infrared and mass spectrometry. Funding for this work has been provided by NASA’s Planetary Atmospheres and Outer Planets Research programs.

References

Carlson, R. W., K. H. Baines, M. S. Anderson, G. Filacchione. Chromophores from photolyzed ammonia reacting with acetylene: Application to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, DPS, 44, 2012.

Simon, A. A., J. Legarreta, F. Sanz-Requena, S. Perez-Hoyos, E. Garcia-Melendo, R. W. Carlson. Spectral Comparison and Stability of Red Regions on Jupiter. J. Geophys. Res. - Planets, submitted.