U53A:
New Horizons at Pluto-Charon: Results from the First Months of Data Return

Note: Abstract submissions to Union sessions are by invitation only.


Session ID#: 8957

Session Description:
The New Horizons spacecraft will fly ~12,500 km above the surface of Pluto on 14 July 2015, culminating a 6-month investigation of the Pluto system. New Horizons carries a suite of seven sophisticated instruments optimized for measurements of Pluto, its moons, and the surrounding environment. The science payload includes LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager), Ralph (visible and infrared imager/spectrometer), Alice (ultraviolet imaging/spectrograph), SWAP (Solar Wind Around Pluto), PEPSSI (Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation), REX (Radio science EXperiment), and SDC (Student Dust Counter). The New Horizons encounter with Pluto-Charon is providing the initial reconnaissance of objects beyond Neptune and is expected to make discoveries on the nature, origin and evolution of this miniature planetary system, conditions in the ancient and modern Kuiper belt, and fundamental planetary processes. A comprehensive series of reviews of atmospheric, space physics, geology/geophysics, and composition findings made from the various instrument flyby datasets will be presented.
Primary Convener:  William B McKinnon, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
Convener:  Catherine Olkin, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
Chairs:  William B McKinnon, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States and Catherine Olkin, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
OSPA Liaison:  William B McKinnon, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
Index Terms:

5405 Atmospheres [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
6207 Comparative planetology [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
6270 Pluto and satellites [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
7899 General or miscellaneous [SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Overview of Key Results from the Exploration of the Pluto System by New Horizons (Invited) (61012)
S Alan Stern1, Harold A Weaver Jr2, Leslie Ann Young1, Catherine Olkin1, Kimberly Ennico Smith3, Jeffrey M Moore4, John R Spencer1, William B McKinnon5, William M Grundy6, Dale P Cruikshank4, Fran Bagenal7, Randy Gladstone8, Michael E Summers9 and The NASA New Horizons Science Team, (1)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, United States, (3)NASA Ames, Moffet Field, CA, United States, (4)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (5)Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States, (6)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, United States, (7)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, United States, (9)George Mason University Fairfax, Physics & Astronomy, Fairfax, United States
New Horizons Investigation of Pluto's Small Satellites (Invited) (68373)
Harold A Weaver Jr, Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, United States and New Horizons Science Team
Geology of Pluto and Charon Overview (Invited) (60979)
Jeffrey M Moore1, Alan Stern2, Harold A Weaver Jr3, Leslie Ann Young4, Kimberly Ennico Smith1, Catherine Olkin4 and the New Horizons Geology and Geophysics Imaging Theme Team and the New Horizons Science Team, (1)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
Pluto As Seen by the LEISA Spectrometer on New Horizons (Invited) (72430)
Dale P Cruikshank1, William M Grundy2, Catherine Olkin3, Alan Stern4, Leslie Ann Young3, Richard P Binzel5, Jason Campbell Cook6, Cristina Dalle Ore7, Alissa M Earle8, Kimberly Ennico Smith1, Donald E Jennings9, Carly Howett3, Ivan Linscott10, Allen Lunsford9, Alex Harrison Parker11, Joel Wm. Parker6, Silvia Protopapa12, Dennis Reuter9, Kelsi N Singer3, John R Spencer3, Constantine Tsang3 and Harold A Weaver Jr13, (1)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (2)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)MIT Rm 54-410, Cambridge, United States, (6)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (7)SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States, (8)MIT Rm 54-410, Cambridge, MA, United States, (9)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, (11)SETI Institute, Mountain View, United States, (12)University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States, (13)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States
Solar wind interaction with Pluto’s escaping atmosphere (Invited) (60852)
Fran Bagenal, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States and New Horizons Science Team
The Atmospheres of Pluto and Charon (Invited) (67003)
Randy Gladstone1, Michael E Summers2, Alan Stern3, Kimberly Ennico Smith4, Catherine Olkin5, Harold A Weaver Jr6, Leslie Ann Young5, Darrell F Strobel7, David P Hinson8, Joshua Kammer9, Alex Harrison Parker10, Andrew Steffl11, Ivan Linscott12, Joel Wm. Parker13, Andrew F Cheng6, Maarten H Versteeg9, Thomas Greathouse9, Kurt D Retherford9, Henry Throop14, William W Woods12, Kelsi N Singer5, Constantine Tsang5, Eric Schindhelm5, Michael L. Wong15, Yuk L Yung16, Xun Zhu17, Werner Curdt18, Panayotis Lavvas19, Eliot F Young3, G Leonard Tyler12 and The New Horizons Atmospheres Team, (1)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)George Mason University Fairfax, Physics & Astronomy, Fairfax, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (5)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)Johns Hopkins Univ, Baltimore, MD, United States, (8)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (9)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, United States, (10)SETI Institute, Mountain View, United States, (11)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (12)Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, (13)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (14)Planetary Science Institute Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM, United States, (15)California Institute of Technology - Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (16)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (17)Johns Hopkins Univ, Laurel, MD, United States, (18)Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany, (19)University of Reims, Reims, France
The interacting surface and atmosphere of Pluto (Invited) (60889)
Leslie Ann Young1, Richard P Binzel2, Alissa M Earle3, S Alan Stern4, Harold A Weaver Jr5, Catherine Olkin1, Kimberly Ennico Smith6 and New Horizons Science Team, (1)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)MIT Rm 54-410, Cambridge, United States, (3)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, United States, (5)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, United States, (6)NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA, United States

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