Pluto's haze as a surface material
Pluto's atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto's icy bedrock and from the volatile ices that migrate via sublimation and condensation on seasonal timescales. This paper explores how a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier BV
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124498 |
| _version_ | 1826211904419266560 |
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| author | Binzel, Richard P Earle, Alissa M. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Binzel, Richard P Earle, Alissa M. |
| author_sort | Binzel, Richard P |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Pluto's atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto's icy bedrock and from the volatile ices that migrate via sublimation and condensation on seasonal timescales. This paper explores how a steady supply of atmospheric haze might affect three distinct provinces on Pluto. We pose the question of why they each look so different from one another if the same haze material is settling out onto all of them. Cthulhu is a more ancient region with comparatively little present-day geological activity, where the haze appears to simply accumulate over time. Sputnik Planitia is a very active region where glacial convection, as well as sublimation and condensation rapidly refresh the surface, hiding recently deposited haze from view. Lowell Regio is a region of intermediate age featuring very distinct coloration from the rest of Pluto. Using a simple model haze particle as a colorant, we are not able to match the colors in both Lowell Regio and Cthulhu. To account for their distinct colors, we propose that after arrival at Pluto's surface, haze particles may be less inert than might be supposed from the low surface temperatures. They must either interact with local materials and environments to produce distinct products in different regions, or else the supply of haze must be non-uniform in time and/or location, such that different products are delivered to different places. ©2018 keywords: Pluto; Pluto, surface; Pluto, atmosphere; Geological processes; Ices; Photochemistry |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:13:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/124498 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:13:17Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1244982022-09-29T13:28:41Z Pluto's haze as a surface material Binzel, Richard P Earle, Alissa M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Pluto's atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto's icy bedrock and from the volatile ices that migrate via sublimation and condensation on seasonal timescales. This paper explores how a steady supply of atmospheric haze might affect three distinct provinces on Pluto. We pose the question of why they each look so different from one another if the same haze material is settling out onto all of them. Cthulhu is a more ancient region with comparatively little present-day geological activity, where the haze appears to simply accumulate over time. Sputnik Planitia is a very active region where glacial convection, as well as sublimation and condensation rapidly refresh the surface, hiding recently deposited haze from view. Lowell Regio is a region of intermediate age featuring very distinct coloration from the rest of Pluto. Using a simple model haze particle as a colorant, we are not able to match the colors in both Lowell Regio and Cthulhu. To account for their distinct colors, we propose that after arrival at Pluto's surface, haze particles may be less inert than might be supposed from the low surface temperatures. They must either interact with local materials and environments to produce distinct products in different regions, or else the supply of haze must be non-uniform in time and/or location, such that different products are delivered to different places. ©2018 keywords: Pluto; Pluto, surface; Pluto, atmosphere; Geological processes; Ices; Photochemistry 2020-04-06T19:43:54Z 2020-04-06T19:43:54Z 2018-11 2017-08 2020-04-03T16:40:52Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0019-1035 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124498 Grundy, W. M., et al., "Pluto's haze as a surface material." Icarus 314 (2018): p. 232-45 doi 10.1016/J.ICARUS.2018.05.019 ©2018 Author(s) en 10.1016/J.ICARUS.2018.05.019 Icarus Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier BV arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Binzel, Richard P Earle, Alissa M. Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title | Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title_full | Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title_fullStr | Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title_short | Pluto's haze as a surface material |
| title_sort | pluto s haze as a surface material |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124498 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT binzelrichardp plutoshazeasasurfacematerial AT earlealissam plutoshazeasasurfacematerial |