1205.5621 (Dong Wang et al.)

Chemical Constraints on the Oxygen Abundances in Jupiter and Saturn    [PDF]

Dong Wang, Jonathan I. Lunine

We perform a comparative analysis of the chemical kinetics of CO and $\rm PH_3$ in Jupiter and Saturn to assess the full set of constraints available on the troposphere water abundance in the two giant planets. For carbon monoxide we employ both a widely used CO kinetic scheme from Yung et al, and a newly identified CO chemical scheme from Visscher and Moses. For $\rm PH_3$ chemical scheme, we use the same chemical scheme as in Visscher and Fegley. Yung's chemical scheme for CO yields a water enrichment of 0.95 - 23.0 times solar abundance on Jupiter, and an upper limit of 14.0 for Saturn. Visscher's chemical scheme in contrast produces a water enrichment of 0.24 - 2.6 times solar abundance in Jupiter, and for Saturn an upper limit for water enrichment of 8.0. From this scheme, which takes advantage of the most up-to-date kinetics, we preclude high water enrichments on Jupiter and Saturn, and show that the kinetics approach yields Jovian bulk abundance in which values of C/O elevated relative to solar are admissible. Our result is consistent with recent reinterpretation of Galileo Probe data in which Jupiter formed in a water-depleted portion of the protoplanetary disk (Mousis et al).

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.5621