The Space Environment of Io and Europa

TLDR

The Galilean moons influence Jupiter’s magnetosphere, while magnetospheric particles and fields affect the moons, creating neutral atom clouds that ionize into plasma and forming a feedback loop whose stability depends on plasma‑moon‑atmosphere interactions. This review aims to describe the physical processes that shape the space environment around Io and Europa and to illustrate their influence from Jupiter into interplanetary space. The authors examine the interactions between magnetospheric particles, neutral clouds, and moon atmospheres to explain how Io and Europa’s environments affect and are affected by Jupiter’s magnetosphere and the surrounding space.

Abstract

Abstract The Galilean moons play major roles in the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter. At the same time, the magnetospheric particles and fields affect the moons. The impact of magnetospheric ions on the moons' atmospheres supplies clouds of escaping neutral atoms that populate a substantial fraction of their orbits. At the same time, ionization of atoms in the neutral cloud is the primary source of magnetospheric plasma. The stability of this feedback loop depends on the plasma/moon‐atmosphere interaction. The purpose of this review is to describe the physical processes that shape the space environment around the two innermost Galilean moons—Io and Europa—and to show their impact from the planet Jupiter out into interplanetary space.