The Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) is an
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
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 mate ...
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 Europ ...
'' mission to Jupiter's moon
Europa
Europa may refer to:
Places
* Europe
* Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace
* Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro
* Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development
* Europa Cliff ...
.
[ 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 develop ...
(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).photons
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they alway ...
in the 55-210 nm wavelength range, along a 7.5° slit.[
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: Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, 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 ...
.
See also
*UVS (Juno)
UVS, known as the Ultraviolet Spectrograph or Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer is the name of an instrument on the ''Juno'' orbiter for Jupiter. The instrument is an imaging spectrometer that observes the ultraviolet range of light wavelengths ...
(Instrument on the Juno Jupiter orbiter which arrived at Jupiter in 2016)
References
{{Satellite and spacecraft instruments
Spacecraft instruments
Europa (moon)
Europa Clipper