SM31D-2537
Solar Wind at 33 AU: Setting Bounds on the Pluto Interaction
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Fran Bagenal1, Peter A Delamere2, Heather Alison Elliott3, Matthew E Hill4, Carey Michael Lisse4, David J McComas3, Ralph L McNutt Jr4, John D Richardson5, Charles William Smith6 and Darrell F Strobel7, (1)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (4)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (5)MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States, (6)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (7)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
Abstract:
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft carries two instruments that detect charged particles. Pluto has a tenuous, extended atmosphere that is escaping the planet’s weak gravity. The interaction of the solar wind with Pluto’s escaping atmosphere depends on solar wind conditions as well as the vertical structure of Pluto’s atmosphere. We have analyzed Voyager 2 particles and fields measurements between 25 and 39 AU and present their statistical variations. We have adjusted these predictions to allow for the Sun’s declining activity and solar wind output. We summarize the range of SW conditions that likely experienced by Pluto at 33 AU.
