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A James Webb Space Telescope Investigation of Carbon Dioxide Signatures on Europa
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
2025 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Carbon dioxide is an important biomarker and plays a valuable role in the search for potentially habitable celestial objects. The purpose of this study was to examine new data from the James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the presence and abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. If the chemical element was detected, it could imply the existence of processes that are necessary for a habitable environment. The method of detection was based on the irradiance spectrum of carbon dioxide gas, which was modeled and compared to the spectrum obtained by the telescope. The Pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to compare the measurements and the model. Moreover, several statistical tests were performed to investigate the presence, the abundance, and the distribution of carbon dioxide across Europa. The study found statistically significant correlations between the measured irradiance spectra and the model in only one location on the moon's leading hemisphere, named Tara Regio. This suggests that carbon dioxide in gaseous form does exist on Europa, however, it is primarily located in the leading hemisphere and seems to be concentrated in this region. It was estimated that there is approximately a ten times higher concentration in Tara Regio than in the rest of the leading hemisphere. This result confirms conclusions drawn from previous studies that used older observations from the telescope and only detected carbon dioxide ice.

Abstract [sv]

Koldioxid är en viktig biomarkör och spelar en värdefull roll i sökandet efter en potentiellt beboelig himlakropp. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka ny data från James Webb-teleskopet for att analysera förekomsten och mängden gasformig koldioxid i Europas atmosfär, en av Jupiters månar. Om det kemiska elementet detekterades skulle det kunna implicera existensen av processer som är nödvändiga för en beboelig miljö. Detekteringsmetoden baserades på koldioxidens strålningsspektrum, vilket modellerades och jämfördes med inhämtade spektrum från teleskopet. Pearsons produktmomentkorrelationskoefficient användes för att jämföra mätningarna med modellen. Vidare utfördes flertalet statistiska tester för att undersöka koldioxidens existens, mängd och fördelning över Europa. Studien hittade statistiskt signifikanta korrelationer mellan uppmätta strålningsspektra och modellen på endast ett område som heter Tara Regio och som befinner sig på månens ledande hemisfär. Detta tyder på att koldioxid i gasform finns på Europa, men att den huvudsakligen förekommer i den ledande hemisfären och verkar vara koncentrerad till denna region. Det uppskattades att det finns en ungefär tio gånger högre koncentration i Tara Regio än i resterande delar av den ledande hemisfären. Detta resultat bekräftar slutsatser som dragits i tidigare studier som använt äldre observationer av teleskopet och enbart detekterade fryst koldioxid.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 367-378
Series
TRITA-EECS-EX ; 2025:136
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-376120OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-376120DiVA, id: diva2:2033994
Supervisors
Examiners
Projects
Kandidatexamensarbete i Elektroteknik 2025, EECS, KTHAvailable from: 2026-01-30 Created: 2026-01-30

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