Spot-On: Ammonium Hydrogen Sulfide and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Abstract

The color and composition of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) has
been debated for more than a century. While there are numerous
hypotheses for the origin of Jupiter’s GRS, recent work suggests
that the GRS’s color could originate from multiple components
(Carlson et al., 2012; Simon-Miller et al., submitted). In light of
this, we have recently begun conducting in situ laboratory experiments
that test whether ammonium hydrosulfide, NH4SH, or its
radiation decomposition products contribute to the GRS spectrum. In this
presentation, we will discuss some of our most recent results, where we
have monitored color and compositional changes in NH4SH
samples using infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Funding for
this work has been provided by NASA’s Planetary Atmospheres and
Outer Planets Research programs. References Carlson, R. W., K. H.
Baines, M. S. Anderson, G. Filacchione. Chromophores from photolyzed
ammonia reacting with acetylene: Application to Jupiter’s Great
Red Spot, DPS, 44, 2012. Simon-Miller, A. A., R. W. Carlson, A.
Sanchez-Lavega. An Intense Red Jovian Cyclone: Another Key to Finding
the Chromophores? Icarus, submitted.