All of the maps created from the images will be placed in Nasa's public archive as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy programme.
The main interest of this numerical study is to investigate the capabilities of this facility to simulate flight conditions during entries into planet atmospheres containing CO2.
Observations of oxygen pickup ions by the plasma analyzer on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) Mission arguably launched broad interest in solar wind erosion of unmagnetized planet atmospheres, and its potential evolutionary effects.
This week the Hubble Space Telescope will be pointing its powerful lens toward the ultracool dwarf star -- looking for the molecular signature of water in the planets' atmosphere, or if they have an exosphere of hydrogen. .
That could provide images that allow astronomers to determine the composition of the planets' atmospheres.
"The light from these stars will pass through their planets' atmospheres and will allow us to study their composition.
Perhaps the leading theory, at least for Jupiter and Saturn, is the "gas drag" idea, that the planets' atmospheres were at one point bloated, extending millions of miles beyond their current envelopes.
The largest flares unleash streams of particles that could play havoc with planets' atmospheres - or inhabitants.
What was particularly exciting was the fact that low concentrations of hydrogen and helium were detected in the planets' atmospheres.
"We haven't just confirmed the idea that some planets' atmospheres evaporate," Lecavalier claims, "we've watched the physical conditions in the evaporating atmosphere vary over time.
