| Literature DB >> 26989258 |
G Randall Gladstone1, S Alan Stern2, Kimberly Ennico3, Catherine B Olkin2, Harold A Weaver4, Leslie A Young2, Michael E Summers5, Darrell F Strobel6, David P Hinson7, Joshua A Kammer2, Alex H Parker2, Andrew J Steffl2, Ivan R Linscott8, Joel Wm Parker2, Andrew F Cheng4, David C Slater9, Maarten H Versteeg9, Thomas K Greathouse9, Kurt D Retherford10, Henry Throop6, Nathaniel J Cunningham11, William W Woods8, Kelsi N Singer2, Constantine C C Tsang2, Rebecca Schindhelm2, Carey M Lisse4, Michael L Wong12, Yuk L Yung12, Xun Zhu4, Werner Curdt13, Panayotis Lavvas14, Eliot F Young2, G Leonard Tyler8.
Abstract
Observations made during the New Horizons flyby provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of Pluto's atmosphere. Whereas the lower atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 200 kilometers) is consistent with ground-based stellar occultations, the upper atmosphere is much colder and more compact than indicated by pre-encounter models. Molecular nitrogen (N2) dominates the atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 1800 kilometers or so), whereas methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), ethylene (C2H4), and ethane (C2H6) are abundant minor species and likely feed the production of an extensive haze that encompasses Pluto. The cold upper atmosphere shuts off the anticipated enhanced-Jeans, hydrodynamic-like escape of Pluto's atmosphere to space. It is unclear whether the current state of Pluto's atmosphere is representative of its average state--over seasonal or geologic time scales.Entities:
Year: 2016 PMID： 26989258 DOI： 10.1126/science.aad8866
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Science ISSN： 0036-8075 Impact factor: 47.728