The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a water-ice crust, geologically young surface units, surface ice convection, wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow. Pluto's atmosphere is highly extended, with trace hydrocarbons, a global haze layer, and a surface pressure near 10 microbars. Pluto's diverse surface geology and long-term activity raise fundamental questions about how small planets remain active many billions of years after formation. Pluto's large moon Charon displays tectonics and evidence for a heterogeneous crustal composition; its north pole displays puzzling dark terrain. Small satellites Hydra and Nix have higher albedos than expected.

Auroral processes are evident in Jupiter's polar atmosphere over a large range in wavelength (X-ray to radio). In particular, previous observations in the mid-infrared (5 to 15 µm) have shown enhanced emission from CH 4 , C 2 H 2 and C 2 H 4 and further stratospheric hydrocarbon species in spatial regions coincident with auroral processes observed at other wavelengths. These regions, described as auroral-related hotspots, observed at approximately 160• W to 200• W (System III) at high-northern latitudes and 330• W to 80• W at high-southern latitudes, indicate that auroral processes modify the thermal structure and composition of the neutral atmosphere. However, previous studies have struggled to differentiate whether the aforementioned enhanced emission is a result of either temperature changes and/or changes in the concentration of the emitting species. We attempt to address this degeneracy in this work by performing a retrieval analysis of Voyager 1-IRIS spectra (acquired in 1979) and Cassini-CIRS spectra (acquired in 2000/2001) of Jupiter. Retrievals of the vertical temperature profile in Cassini-CIRS spectra covering the auroral-related hotspots indicate the presence of two discrete vertical regions of heating at the 1-mbar level and at pressures of 10-µbar and lower. For example, in Cassini-CIRS 2.5 cm −1 'MIRMAP' spectra at 70• N (planetographic) 180• W (centred on the auroral oval), we find temperatures at the 1-mbar level and 10-µbar levels are enhanced by 15.3 ± 5.2 K and 29.6 ± 15.0 K respectively, in comparison to results at 70• N, 60• W in the same dataset. High temperatures at 10-µbar and lower pressures were considered indicative of joule heating, ion and/or electron precipitation, ion-drag and energy released form exothermic ion-chemistry. However, we conclude that the heating at the 1-mbar level is the result of either a layer of aurorally-produced haze particles, which are heated by incident sunlight and/or adiabatic heating by downwelling within the auroral hot-spot region. The former mechanism would be consistent with the vertical profiles of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and haze particles predicted in auroral-chemistry models (Wong et al., 2000(Wong et al., , 2003. Retrievals of C 2 H 2 and C 2 H 6 were also performed and indicate C 2 H 2 is enriched but C 2 H 6 is depleted in auroral regions relative to quiescent regions. For example, using CIRS ∆ν = 2.5 cm −1 spectra, we determined that C 2 H 2 at 0.98 mbar increases by 175.3 ± 89.3 ppbv while C 2 H 6 at 4.7 mbar decreases by 0.86 ± 0.59 ppmv in comparing results at 70• N, 180• W and 70• N, 60• W. These results represent a mean of values retrieved from different initial assumptions and thus we believe they are robust. We believe these contrasts in C 2 H 2 and C 2 H 6 between auroral and quiescent regions can be explained by a coupling of auroral-driven chemistry and horizontal advection. Ion-neutral and electron recombination chemistry in the auroral region enriches all C 2 hydrocarbons but in particular, the unsaturated ...

Jupiter's aurorae are produced in its upper atmosphere when incoming high-energy electrons precipitate along the planet's magnetic field lines. A northern and a southern main auroral oval are visible, surrounded by small emission features associated with the Galilean moons. We present infrared observations, obtained with the Juno spacecraft, showing that in the case of Io, this emission exhibits a swirling pattern that is similar in appearance to a von Kármán vortex street. Well downstream of the main auroral spots, the extended tail is split in two. Both of Ganymede's footprints also appear as a pair of emission features, which may provide a remote measure of Ganymede's magnetosphere. These features suggest that the magnetohydrodynamic interaction between Jupiter and its moon is more complex than previously anticipated.

No abstract

No abstract