Meteoroid Ablation within the Jovian Atmosphere: Implications on the Oxygen Delivery to the Gas Giant's Atmosphere

TL;DR

This study models meteoroid ablation in Jupiter's atmosphere to assess oxygen delivery, suggesting meteoroids could significantly contribute to atmospheric water, especially in the stratosphere, over geological timescales.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation of meteoroid ablation rates and altitudes in Jupiter's atmosphere, quantifying oxygen input from meteoroids versus interplanetary dust particles.

Findings

Meteoroids could deliver approximately 1.4 x 10^7 kg/m^2 of oxygen over a billion years.

Most ablation occurs in the stratosphere, around 450-400 km altitude.

Interplanetary dust particles contribute roughly 10^2 kg/m^2 of oxygen over the same period.

Abstract

The detection of water molecules within the atmosphere of Jupiter, first by the Galileo Atmospheric Probe, and later by the Juno spacecraft, has given rise to the question of whether those molecules are sourced endogenously or exogenously. One hypothesis is that the ablation of meteoroids deposited the necessary oxygen into the atmosphere, which was subsequently used in chemical processes to form water. This paper aims to evaluate this hypothesis by simulating the ablation of carbonaceous objects entering the planet's atmosphere to determine the possible rates of oxygen delivery and the most likely altitude for such delivery within the Jovian atmosphere. We estimate that carbonaceous meteoroids have the potential to deliver $\sim 1.4 \times 10^7 \, \text{kg/m}^2$ of oxygen over a billion years. We further estimate that most of the ablation is expected to occur in the stratosphere, or 450-400 km above the region of 1 bar of atmospheric pressure. In comparison, Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) are estimated to deliver roughly $\sim 10^2 \, \text{kg/m}^2$ of oxygen over the same period.