U53A-07
The interacting surface and atmosphere of Pluto
Friday, 18 December 2015: 15:24
102 (Moscone South)
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, MA, United States, (3)MIT, EAPS, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA, United States
Abstract:
The frozen volatiles on Pluto's surface, N2, CO and CH4, have long been expected to interact in complex ways as Pluto's distance from the sun and subsolar latitude vary over the course of a Pluto year. With the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft by Pluto, we finally have a data that can help us understand this interaction more completely. Key datasets include spatially resolved surface spectra allowing the relation of composition to albedo; surface pressures; brightness temperatures of the winter longitudes at 4.2 cm; and detailed geology and geomorphology. These and other datasets will challenge and refine our previous understanding of Pluto's interacting surfaces and atmospheres.
