Surface Ices and the Atmospheric Composition of Pluto

Owen, Tobias; Roush, T. L.; Cruikshank, D. P.; Elliot, J. L.; Young, L. A.; Bérgh, C. de; Schmitt, Bernard; Geballe, T. R.; Brown, R. H.; Bartholomew, Mary Jane

doi:10.1126/science.261.5122.745

Cited by 349 publications

(190 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Provided that Pluto's atmosphere in 1996 had a surface pressure of at least ∼58 µbar (corresponding to an N 2 frost temperature of 40 K or more), we can conclude from these observations that CO was a minor constituent in the atmosphere. This supports the conclusion of Owen et al (1993), based on surface spectra, that N 2 is the dominant constituent of Pluto's atmosphere.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Upper Limits on Gaseous CO at Pluto and Triton from High-Resolution Near-IR Spectroscopy

Young

Cook

Yelle

et al. 2001

Icarus

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Upper Limits on Gaseous CO at Pluto and Triton from High-Resolution Near-IR Spectroscopy

Young

Cook

Yelle

et al. 2001

Icarus

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“…Some works (Quirico & Schmitt 1997;Quirico et al 1999;Douté et al 1999;Merlin et al 2010) discuss the existence of regions formed of pure CH 4 segregated from the N 2 :CH 4 solution. This effect was first reported for Pluto by Owen et al (1993). However, this conflicts with both alternative models for explaining Pluto's atmosphere.…”

Section: Shifts Of the Center Of The Bandsmentioning

confidence: 48%

The spectrum of Pluto, 0.40–0.93μm

Lorenzi

Pinilla-Alonso

Licandro

et al. 2016

A&A

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Context. During the past 30 years the surface of Pluto has been characterized and its variability monitored through continuous nearinfrared spectroscopic observations. But in the visible range only a few data are available. Aims. The aim of this work is to define Pluto's relative reflectance in the visible range to characterize the different components of its surface, and to provide ground based observations in support of the New Horizons mission. Methods. We observed Pluto on six nights between May and July 2014 with the imager/spectrograph ACAM at the William Herschel Telescope (La Palma, Spain). The six spectra obtained cover a whole rotation of Pluto (P rot = 6.4 days). For all the spectra, we computed the spectral slope and the depth of the absorption bands of methane ice between 0.62 and 0.90 μm. To search for shifts in the center of the methane bands, which are associated with dilution of CH 4 in N 2 , we compared the bands with reflectances of pure methane ice. Results. All the new spectra show the methane ice absorption bands between 0.62 and 0.90 μm. Computation of the depth of the band at 0.62 μm in the new spectra of Pluto and in the spectra of Makemake and Eris from the literature, allowed us to estimate the Lambert coefficient at this wavelength at temperatures of 30 K and 40 K, which has never been measured before. All the detected bands are blueshifted with respect to the position for pure methane ice, with minimum shifts correlated to the regions where the abundance of methane is higher. This could be indicative of a dilution of CH 4 :N 2 that is more saturated in CH 4 . The longitudinal and secular variations in the parameters measured in the spectra are in accordance with results previously reported in the literature and with the distribution of the dark and bright materials that show the Pluto's color maps from New Horizons.

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“…It has been found on the surface of several icy bodies in the Solar System Owen et al 1993;Brown et al 2005;Licandro et al 2006), such as the icy clouds of Jovian planets (Lindal et al 1987;Smith et al 1989), and of Saturn's moon Titan (McKay et al 1997;Griffith et al 1998;Brown et al 2002), and on the surface of Pluto and of Neptune's satellite Triton (Lanzerotti et al 1987). Methane ices have also been found throughout the interstellar medium (Lacy et al 1991;Boogert et al 1996;Gibb et al 2004;Öberg et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Cosmic ray impact on astrophysical ices: laboratory studies on heavy ion irradiation of methane

Barros

Bordalo

Duarte

et al. 2011

A&A

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Laboratory data of CH 4 ice radiolysis promoted by fast heavy ions are obtained by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). CH 4 molecules are condensed on a CsI substrate at 15 K, and the ice layer is bombarded by 220 MeV 16 O 7+ ion beam. The ice thickness is thin enough to be traversed by projectiles at constant velocity close to the equilibrium charge state. The induced CH 4 dissociation gives rise to the formation of molecular species CH 3 , C 2 H 2 , C 2 H 4 , C 2 H 6 , and C 3 H 8 . Their formation and dissociation cross sections are determined. C 2 H 6 represent the most abundant daughter molecules. The carbon budget analysis of CH 4 and its radiolysis products shows that the column density of carbon atoms contained in the methane destroyed during ion irradiation is 30−50% greater than the sum for the column densities of the newly formed species. As an astrophysical implication, the current results allow estimation of chemical reaction rates in ices covering interstellar grains.

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Surface Ices and the Atmospheric Composition of Pluto

Cited by 349 publications

References 34 publications

Upper Limits on Gaseous CO at Pluto and Triton from High-Resolution Near-IR Spectroscopy

Upper Limits on Gaseous CO at Pluto and Triton from High-Resolution Near-IR Spectroscopy

The spectrum of Pluto, 0.40–0.93μm

Cosmic ray impact on astrophysical ices: laboratory studies on heavy ion irradiation of methane

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