Dunes on Pluto Telfer, Matt W; Parteli, Eric J R; Radebaugh, Jani ...
Science,
06/2018, Letnik:
360, Številka:
6392
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The surface of Pluto is more geologically diverse and dynamic than had been expected, but the role of its tenuous atmosphere in shaping the landscape remains unclear. We describe observations from ...the New Horizons spacecraft of regularly spaced, linear ridges whose morphology, distribution, and orientation are consistent with being transverse dunes. These are located close to mountainous regions and are orthogonal to nearby wind streaks. We demonstrate that the wavelength of the dunes (~0.4 to 1 kilometer) is best explained by the deposition of sand-sized (~200 to ~300 micrometer) particles of methane ice in moderate winds (<10 meters per second). The undisturbed morphology of the dunes, and relationships with the underlying convective glacial ice, imply that the dunes have formed in the very recent geological past.
Detection of Water in the LCROSS Ejecta Plume Colaprete, Anthony; Schultz, Peter; Heldmann, Jennifer ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
10/2010, Letnik:
330, Številka:
6003
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Several remote observations have indicated that water ice may be presented in permanently shadowed craters of the Moon. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission was ...designed to provide direct evidence (1). On 9 October 2009, a spent Centaur rocket struck the persistently shadowed region within the lunar south pole crater Cabeus, ejecting debris, dust, and vapor. This material was observed by a second "shepherding" spacecraft, which carried nine instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, and a radiometer. Near-infrared absorbance attributed to water vapor and ice and ultraviolet emissions attributable to hydroxyl radicals support the presence of water in the debris. The maximum total water vapor and water ice within the instrument field of view was 155 ± 12 kilograms. Given the estimated total excavated mass of regolith that reached sunlight, and hence was observable, the concentration of water ice in the regolith at the LCROSS impact site is estimated to be 5.6 ± 2.9% by mass. In addition to water, spectral bands of a number of other volatile compounds were observed, including light hydrocarbons, sulfur-bearing species, and carbon dioxide.
LCROSS Cratering Experiment Schultz, Peter H; Hermalyn, Brendan; Colaprete, Anthony ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
10/2010, Letnik:
330, Številka:
6003
Journal Article
Recenzirano
As its detached upper-stage launch vehicle collided with the surface, instruments on the trailing Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Shepherding Spacecraft monitored the impact ...and ejecta. The faint impact flash in visible wavelengths and thermal signature imaged in the mid-infrared together indicate a low-density surface layer. The evolving spectra reveal not only OH within sunlit ejecta but also other volatile species. As the Shepherding Spacecraft approached the surface, it imaged a 25- to-30-meter-diameter crater and evidence of a high-angle ballistic ejecta plume still in the process of returning to the surface--an evolution attributed to the nature of the impactor.
•The Alice instrument on New Horizons measured a UV solar occultation by Pluto's atmosphere in 2015.•Densities were derived for N2, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, and haze.•These imply low escape rates ...(CH4-dominated), a stable lower atmosphere, direct evidence for C2Hx photochemistry, and haze whose extinction coefficient is roughly proportional to N2 density.
The Alice instrument on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft observed an ultraviolet solar occultation by Pluto's atmosphere on 2015 July 14. The transmission vs. altitude was sensitive to the presence of N2, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, and haze. We derived line-of-sight abundances and local number densities for the 5 molecular species, and line-of-sight optical depth and extinction coefficients for the haze. We found the following major conclusions: (1) We confirmed temperatures in Pluto's upper atmosphere that were colder than expected before the New Horizons flyby, with upper atmospheric temperatures near 65–68 K. The inferred enhanced Jeans escape rates were (3–7) × 1022 N2 s−1 and (4–8) × 1025 CH4 s−1 at the exobase (at a radius of ∼ 2900 km, or an altitude of ∼1710 km). (2) We measured CH4 abundances from 80 to 1200 km above the surface. A joint analysis of the Alice CH4 and Alice and REX N2 measurements implied a very stable lower atmosphere with a small eddy diffusion coefficient, most likely between 550 and 4000 cm2 s−1. Such a small eddy diffusion coefficient placed the homopause within 12 km of the surface, giving Pluto a small planetary boundary layer. The inferred CH4 surface mixing ratio was ∼ 0.28–0.35%. (3) The abundance profiles of the “C2Hx hydrocarbons” (C2H2, C2H4, C2H6) were not simply exponential with altitude. We detected local maxima in line-of-sight abundance near 410 km altitude for C2H4, near 320 km for C2H2, and an inflection point or the suggestion of a local maximum at 260 km for C2H6. We also detected local minima near 200 km altitude for C2H4, near 170 km for C2H2, and an inflection point or minimum near 170–200 km for C2H6. These compared favorably with models for hydrocarbon production near 300–400 km and haze condensation near 200 km, especially for C2H2 and C2H4 (Wong et al., 2017). (4) We found haze that had an extinction coefficient approximately proportional to N2 density.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the largest airborne observatory in the world, is in full operation capability since February 2014 and is currently completing its ...Observing Cycle 6 Program. The first four years of operation have provided the opportunity to assess the high-level observatory’s technical performance and to identify additional observatory upgrades. Since the start of routine operations, performance and productivity in several areas of the observatory, including science, operations and engineering, have been tracked by metrics and statistics. In this paper we present the general observatory technical performance as the observatory has reached its maturity and has served the science community with over 2900
h of scientific observations.
•A model of Pluto's haze is developed and compared to New Horizons data.•Extinction and scattering observations suggest that haze particles are aggregates.•Condensation of hydrocarbons and nitriles ...likely affects haze distribution.•Compositional differences between Pluto's and Titan's hazes require investigation.•Pluto's atmosphere may be more amicable to particle charging than Titan's.
The New Horizons flyby of Pluto confirmed the existence of hazes in its atmosphere. Observations of a large high- to low- phase brightness ratio, combined with the blue color of the haze (indicative of Rayleigh scattering), suggest that the haze particles are fractal aggregates, perhaps analogous to the photochemical hazes on Titan. Therefore, studying the Pluto hazes can shed light on the similarities and differences between the Pluto and Titan atmospheres. We model the haze distribution using the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres assuming that the distribution is shaped by downward transport and coagulation of particles originating from photochemistry. Hazes composed of both purely spherical and purely fractal aggregate particles are considered. General agreement between model results and solar occultation observations is obtained with aggregate particles when the downward mass flux of photochemical products is equal to the column-integrated methane destruction rate ∼1.2×10−14gcm−2s−1, while for spherical particles the mass flux must be 2–3 times greater. This flux is nearly identical to the haze production flux of Titan previously obtained by comparing microphysical model results to Cassini observations. The aggregate particle radius is sensitive to particle charging effects, and a particle charge to radius ratio of 30e−/µm is necessary to produce ∼0.1–0.2µm aggregates near Pluto's surface, in accordance with forward scattering measurements. Such a particle charge to radius ratio is 2–4 times higher than those previously obtained for Titan. Hazes composed of spheres with the same particle charge to radius ratio have particles that are 4 times smaller at Pluto's surface. These results further suggest that the haze particles are fractal aggregates. We also consider the effect of condensation of HCN, C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6 on the haze particles, which may play an important role in shaping their altitude and size distributions.
The Virgil Fossae region on Pluto exhibits three spatially coincident properties that are suggestive of recent cryovolcanic activity over an area approximately 300 by 200 km. Situated in the fossae ...troughs or channels and in the surrounding terrain are exposures of H2O ice in which there is entrained opaque red-colored matter of unknown composition. The H2O ice is also seen to carry spectral signatures at 1.65 and 2.2 μm of NH3 in some form, possibly as a hydrate, an ammoniated salt, or some other compound. Model calculations of NH3 destruction in H2O ice by galactic cosmic rays suggest that the maximum lifetime of NH3 in the uppermost meter of the exposed surface is ~109 years, while considerations of Lyman-α ultraviolet and solar wind charged particles suggest shorter timescales by a factor of 10 or 10000. Thus, 109 y is taken as an upper limit to the age of the emplacement event, and it could be substantially younger.
The red colorant in the ammoniated H2O in Virgil Fossae and surroundings may be a macromolecular organic material (tholin) thought to give color to much of Pluto's surface, but probably different in composition and age. Owing to the limited spectral range of the New Horizons imaging spectrometer and the signal precision of the data, apart from the H2O and NH3 signatures there are no direct spectroscopic clues to the chemistry of the strongly colored deposit on Pluto. We suggest that the colored material was a component of the fluid reservoir from which the material now on the surface in this region was erupted. Although other compositions are possible, if it is indeed a complex organic material it may incorporate organics inherited from the solar nebula, further processed in a warm aqueous environment inside Pluto.
A planet-scale stress pattern in Pluto's lithosphere induced by true polar wander, freezing of a putative interior ocean, and surface loading has caused fracturing in a broad arc west of Sputnik Planitia, consistent with the structure of Virgil Fossae and similar extensional features. This faulting may have facilitated the ascent of fluid in subsurface reservoirs to reach the surface as flows and as fountains of cryoclastic materials, consistent with the appearance of colored, ammoniated H2O ice deposits in and around Virgil Fossae. Models of a cryoflow emerging from sources in Virgil Fossae indicate that the lateral extent of the flow can be several km (Umurhan et al., 2019). The deposit over the full length (>200 km) of the main trough in the Virgil Fossae complex and extending through the north rim of Elliot crater and varying in elevation over a range of ~2.5 km, suggests that it debouched from multiple sources, probably along the length of the strike direction of the normal faults defining the graben. The source or sources of the ammoniated H2O are one or more subsurface reservoirs that may or may not connect to the global ocean postulated for Pluto's interior. Alternatives to cryovolcanism in producing the observed characteristics of the region around Virgil Fossae are explored in the discussion section of the paper.
•A tectonic structure (Virgil Fossae) on Pluto may be a source of a cryolava that has been erupted onto the planet's surface.•The cryolava consists of H2O and some form of ammonia, as well as a (NH3) signature, and a colored component thought to be complex organic matter.•Ammonia in its various forms is susceptible to destruction and its presence suggests emplacement on Pluto's surface sometime in the past billion years.•In addition to the debouchment of cryolava along fault lines in Virgil Fossae, fountaining from one or more associated sites appears to have distributed a mantling layer covering a few thousand square kilometers.•Large-scale fractures in Pluto's crust appear to have facilitated the emergence of a cryolava from one or more reservoirs in the subsurface.
•State-of-the-art photochemical model for Pluto's atmosphere.•Constrained the surface mixing ratio of CH4 and the eddy diffusion profile of Pluto's atmosphere.•Constrained saturation vapor pressures ...and sticking coefficients for C2 hydrocarbons and the sticking coefficient for HCN.•Prediction for downward fluxes of hydrocarbon and nitrile species.•Predictions for abundances of oxygen-bearing species in Pluto's atmosphere.
New Horizons has granted us an unprecedented glimpse at the structure and composition of Pluto's atmosphere, which is comprised mostly of N2 with trace amounts of CH4, CO, and the photochemical products thereof. Through photochemistry, higher-order hydrocarbons are generated, coagulating into aerosols and resulting in global haze layers. Here we present a state-of-the-art photochemical model for Pluto's atmosphere to explain the abundance profiles of CH4, C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6, the total column density of HCN, and to predict the abundance profiles of oxygen-bearing species. The CH4 profile can be best matched by taking a constant-with-altitude eddy diffusion coefficient Kzz profile of 1 × 103 cm2 s–1 and a fixed CH4 surface mixing ratio of 4 × 10–3. Condensation is key to fitting the C2 hydrocarbon profiles. We find that C2H4 must have a much lower saturation vapor pressure than predicted by extrapolations of laboratory measurements to Pluto temperatures. We also find best-fit values for the sticking coefficients of C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, and HCN. The top three precipitating species are C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6, with precipitation rates of 179, 95, and 62 g cm–2 s–1, respectively.
Transit spectroscopy is the most promising path toward characterizing nearby terrestrial planets at mid-infrared (3-30 m) wavelengths in the next 20 yr. The Spitzer Space telescope has achieved ...moderately good mid-infrared photometric precision in observations of transiting planets, but the intrinsic photometric stability of mid-IR detectors themselves has not been reported in the scientific or technical literature. Here, we evaluated the photometric precision of a James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument prototype mid-infrared Si:As impurity band conduction detector, using time-series data taken under flood illumination. These measurements of photometric precision were conducted over periods of ∼10 hr, representative of the time required to observe an exoplanet transit. After selecting multiple sub-regions with a size of 10 × 10 pixels and compensating for a gain change caused by our warm detector control electronics for the selected sub-regions, we found that the photometric precision was limited to 26.3 ppm at high co-added signal levels due to a gain variation caused by our warm detector control electronics. The photometric precision was improved up to 12.8 ppm after correcting for the gain drift. We also translated the photometric precision to the expected spectro-photometric precision (i.e., relative photometric precision between wavelengths), assuming that an optimized densified pupil spectrograph is used in transit observations. We found that the spectro-photometric precision of an optimized densified pupil spectrograph when used in transit observations is expected to be improved by the square root of the number of pixels per a spectral resolution element. At the high co-added signal levels, the total noise could be reduced down to 7 ppm, which was larger by a factor of 1.3 than the ideal performance that was limited by the Poisson noise and readout noise. The systematic noise hidden behind the simulated transit spectroscopy was 1.7 ppm.
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