Pluto System- NH Scientific Results Options

[Paolo]

out in Science (and in open access, thanks Alan!):
The Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons

[alan]

The bulk densities of Pluto and Charon were found to differ by less than 10%, which is consistent with bulk rock contents for the two bodies that are likewise similar. This could imply that both precursor bodies were undifferentiated (or only modestly differentiated) prior to their collision—which would have profound implications for the timing, the duration, and even the mechanism of accretion in the ancestral Kuiper Belt.

Hmm...

Formation after Al-26 decays? Formation of 100 km objects directly from chrondules? Hierarchical accretion of those or pebble accretion onto them?

ETA: Pluto and Charon formed and grew as a double planet?

[Bill Harris]

Thanks, alan.

These are very strange and wonderful worlds.

--Bill

[serpens]

......ETA: Pluto and Charon formed and grew as a double planet?

Given that Pluto has an axial tilt around 122 degrees the more likely scenario is that the Pluto/Charon system formed as the result of a major collision. While the original bodies would have formed during solar system accretion we don't really know how long ago the Pluto/Charon system formed or indeed, how long ago Pluto finally became tidally locked. Spin down could have completed reasonably recent in geological terms which could explain some to the seemingly recent tectonic features.

[James S.]

Mr Stern, thank you so much for this. I just want to thank you and everyone else involved with New Horizons and I look forward in the years to come to reading all your findings. I've been totally fascinated by this since New Horizons launched in January 2006.

James Sontag

[Alan Stern]

Mr Stern, thank you so much for this. I just want to thank you and everyone else involved with New Horizons and I look forward in the years to come to reading all your findings. I've been totally fascinated by this since New Horizons launched in January 2006.

James Sontag

You're very welcome James, we are ecstatic to be able to explore, and to share the exploration broadly.

[Bill Harris]

And we are absolutely giddy with excitement of being able to walk in the footsteps and to look over the shoulders of you giants at these wonders. I remember the excitement of viewing the first Mariner Mars in newspaper halftone when the were released they next day. Even though the clarity of the NH images is several orders of magnitude improved, the thrill is still so similar.

--Bill

[Guest_MichaelPoole_*]

I don't think the spin down of Pluto was recent. It wouldn't be in an almost totally circular tidal lock otherwise.

[Paolo]

lots of papers on our beloved Pluto in tomorrow's Science. all but one in open access (come on, put all of them in open access!)

The small satellites of Pluto as observed by New Horizons

The atmosphere of Pluto as observed by New Horizons

Pluto’s interaction with its space environment: Solar wind, energetic particles, and dust

Surface compositions across Pluto and Charon

The geology of Pluto and Charon through the eyes of New Horizons

[alan]

Just took another look , they are all open access now.

[JohnVV]

the small bodies node has some data up
From LORRI , fits with pds lbl's
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/
------------
raw data
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdi....0/dataset.html
Calibrated data
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdi....0/dataset.html

[Herobrine]

the small bodies node has some data up
From LORRI , fits with pds lbl's
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/
------------
raw data
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdi....0/dataset.html
Calibrated data
http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdi....0/dataset.html

The *day* I finish my approach animation. Now I have to get to make it again!

Edit: Nevermind; it looks like, for LORRI, it's all (or mostly) just the early "browse" frames, highly lossy-compressed. I get better quality from the JPEGs on the SOC site. Though, it might be worth it for me to take a look at the LBLs to see if they have accurate pointing/orientation data.

[Julius]

I am not sure if I should post this here but having seen the Pluto system up close we have come to know better how this system ticks. Analogies have been made with the Earth particularly in terms of Planet moon size comparison and the process of formation in terms of colliding protoplanets in the early history of the solar system. Is there any possibility the protoplanet that collided with earth which led to the formation of our moon was a KBO? Would that not explain the different make up of earth's atmosphere today and the abundant presence of liquid water on the surface in contrast to the other terrestrial planets?

[Gerald]

The relative abundance of water on Earth compared to the whole mass of Earth is very small. Kind of a water protoplanet made of the absolut amount of water on Earth would have been far too small (by orders of magnitude) to split off Earth's moon from a proto-Earth.
But KBO impacts may well have contributed to the water on Earth, possibly during the LHB.
Although I'm unsure, whether 4 billion years ago, the notion "KBO" did already make sense, since our solar system may have undergone significant changes since then.

[ngunn]

Is there any possibility the protoplanet that collided with earth which led to the formation of our moon was a KBO?

My impression from what I've read is that the collision was a relatively low velocity one, implying that the colliding object was in an orbit rather similar to the proto-earth, so not a KBO. I think there was a lot of water around in the inner solar system right from the beginning. It's had billions of years to get lost by photo-dissociation at the tops of atmospheres and by molecular sublimation from planetary surfaces exposed to near vacuum and sunlight, but it survives everywhere else: as ice just under the surface on Mars and Ceres, as a major component of the Venusian clouds, as ice again in cold traps on Mercury and the Moon - and there is probably even more water stored in pore spaces in rocks on all the terrestrial worlds.

[nprev]

Charon's north polar hood a result of atmospheric capture from Pluto.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-paints-i...argest-moon-red

[verfkwast]

Pluto's interacting surface and atmosphere
Dr. Leslie Young - New Horizons Science Team

SETI Talk sept. 2016 : https://youtu.be/srEmXQJoln8

Description:
Pluto's main atmospheric species, N2, is also frozen on its surface, as are its minor atmospheric species, CH4 and CO. The New Horizons spacecraft found complicated and intriguing evidence for a dynamically interacting surface and atmosphere. The REX instrument shows a planetary boundary layer that depends on whether there's N2 ice available to sublimate.
Altitude appears to be a factor in the distribution of both N2 and CH4 ice, with N2 favoring lower altitudes (higher pressures, so higher condensation temperatures), whereas some high ridges are coated in CH4 frost. Sublimation may be responsible for some of the stranger geologic forms on Pluto. Finally, preserved landforms may point to earlier ages with more widespread volatile ice coverage or higher surface pressures.
Dr. Young will talk about the evidence, and some of the ways New Horizons is influencing how we think about Pluto's atmosphere and surface.
.

[alan]

[SETI Talk sept. 2016 : https://youtu.be/srEmXQJoln8

It sounds like the Charonshine image didn't work as well as hoped (at ~53:30)

[alan]

Artists rendering of Sputnik Planetia

https://twitter.com/AlanStern/status/788392876426133505

[James S.]

Incredible! Thank you so much for sharing this. Also, I would like to thank you and your team again for exploring the Pluto system and Kuiper Belt.

James Sontag

[atomoid]

short Oct 18 article in NY Times Pluto May Have Clouds, New Data Indicate though apparently an ephemeral dusk/dawn phenomena

[alan]

Pluto article by Emily Lakdawalla

DPS/EPSC update on New Horizons at the Pluto system and beyond

The first image contains some terrain that I don't remember seeing before.

And possibly another volcano.

[Ian R]

This new mosaic includes terrain visible to LORRI via haze-illumination only and includes putative cryovolcano Piccard Mons:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20050

[alan]

Looking Through the Darkness Image processing reveals new details on Pluto's dark side!

[alan]

Reorientation of Sputnik Planitia implies a subsurface ocean on Pluto

Reorientation and faulting of Pluto due to volatile loading within Sputnik Planitia

[vikingmars]

Reorientation of Sputnik Planitia implies a subsurface ocean on Pluto

Reorientation and faulting of Pluto due to volatile loading within Sputnik Planitia

Dear Alan,

WOW ! WOW !! WOW !!!

Thanks a lot for those useful links : what an IMPRESSIVE work of yours and your team !!!

What a SPECTACULAR new world you discovered !

The New Horizon mission success deserves indeed a lot of CONGRATULATIONS !

(PS : as a TPS member since 1982, I've been following your Pluto projects since the very beginning : you did a great feat convincing people and getting a budget for this incredible one-shot mission !)

[Habukaz]

(for the record, Alan Stern's UMSF username is Alan Stern, the above is a different alan)

[Alan Stern]

Dear Alan,

WOW ! WOW !! WOW !!!

Thanks a lot for those useful links : what an IMPRESSIVE work of yours and your team !!!

What a SPECTACULAR new world you discovered !

The New Horizon mission success deserves indeed a lot of CONGRATULATIONS !

(PS : as a TPS member since 1982, I've been following your Pluto projects since the very beginning : you did a great feat convincing people and getting a budget for this incredible one-shot mission !)

Thank you, its amazing how long and hard we had to work to get this mission on the books, and then to build and fly it. But really it was the work of many people, no one. Spaceflight is a team sport.

-Alan S.

[alan]

Icarus
Volume 287, Pages 1-334 (1 May 2017)
Special Issue\: The Pluto System

Pay-walled

I remember and open access issue before the encounter with articles about what was 'known' up to that point.

I had hoped that this would be the same.

[nprev]

ADMIN NOTE: Edited topic title to broaden the scope of this section a bit.

[vikingmars]

WOW ! It's seems that it is a HUGE issue filled with 26 Pluto-Charon (& small satellites) articles !

Here is its summary :
 Icarus___Vol_287__Pgs_1_334___1_May_2017____ScienceDirect.pdf ( 334.81K ) Number of downloads: 2035

But, at a cost of USD 35.95 per article, it makes a global budget of USD 934.00 I really can't afford
At least, there is one interesting article offered for free : its about the tectonics of Charon. See link here below :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...30834X-main.pdf

Enjoy

[algorithm]

Forgive my ignorance on the subject but, who profits from the asking price to view these papers?

I was under the impression that as NASA is a taxpayer funded agency then all of its scientific/technological discoveries/advancements, also belonged to the taxpayer.

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, but journals are published by companies or scientific groups (e.g Elsevier, American Association for the Advancement of Science etc.), who have to pay the bills and/or make a profit. There is increasing pressure to publish in open-access journals now.

Also - NASA's data may be free but the scientists who use it for research are not necessarily NASA employees. When they are NASA or other US Government employees, that work is usually openly available.

Phil

[fredk]

If you happen to be within visiting distance of a university library, you should be able to do it the old way: view or copy/scan the articles there.

[Tom Tamlyn]

It's sometimes possible to obtain a preprint of an article in an expensive publication. I just tried a search on arxiv.org (a preprint server) with "pluto" in the title field and was rewarded with preprints of some (not all) of the articles from the recent special Pluto issue of Icarus. For example, Umurhana, et al., "Modeling glacial flow on and onto Pluto’s Sputnik Planitia."

The Icarus authors' guidelines states:

You can always post your preprint on a preprint server. Additionally, for ArXiv and RePEC you can also immediately update this version with your accepted manuscript.

Although I've never tried it, I've read that a polite email to the author of a published paper requesting posting of a preprint will frequently be successful. In the case of multi-author articles, I don't know whether such requests can be directed to any of the authors or if it's etiquette to restrict them to the first listed author. Like any customary courtesy, it would probably break down if overused.

[elakdawalla]

Pro tip: Every article has a "corresponding author" whose email address you can find on the article's home page. If you send a brief, polite email ("Dear [DR. AUTHOR], Could you please send me a PDF of your recent [JOURNAL] article '[TITLE OF ARTICLE]'? With regards, [YOUR NAME]") to the corresponding author of an article to request a PDF, you will almost always receive one quickly.

[mcaplinger]

There is increasing pressure to publish in open-access journals now.

But is there extra funding? It's worth nothing that publishing open-access usually involves the authors paying extra charges. For example, Space Science Reviews has no page charges for conventional publishing but charges an additional $3000 per article for open access.

[TheAnt]

But is there extra funding? It's worth nothing that publishing open-access usually involves the authors paying extra charges. For example, Space Science Reviews has no page charges for conventional publishing but charges an additional $3000 per article for open access.

Oh yes Plos biology charge 2,900 $ US for publishing also, that's in the same ballpark. The very idea of commercialize science go against the very idea of the basic idea of free and open exchange of science data.
And charging that for publication from government or institution dpt. that are severely underfunded from the start.
Equally bad as in the example of Vikingmars who were supposed to pay 934$ to read the articles of interest.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

But yes, at least now ArXiv provides a loophole for recent publication. It's pure hell to get access to older ones though (which I often need.)

[Explorer1]

New elevation map of Charon released: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science...mp;image_id=508

A couple of enormous impact basins are more visible now.

[alan]

The Pluto System After New Horizons

https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05669

[James S.]

The Pluto System After New Horizons

https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05669

Thanks so much for sharing the link. It's a great read.

James

[tty]

A tip. The papers are available at sci-hub.tw. Just input the DOI-numbers.

[alan]

Pluto’s ocean is capped and insulated by gas hydrates.

What Prevents Pluto’s Ocean from Freezing?
Layers of ice-like gas hydrates may insulate frigid ocean worlds across the cosmos
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...-from-freezing/

Link at bottom of SA article goes to full Nature Geoscience article, no login required.

[Marcin600]

From LPSC 52 abstracts:
J.M. Moore et al. ARE THE SURFACE TEXTURES OF PLUTO’S WRIGHT MONS AND ITS SURROUNDINGS EXOGENIC?
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1693.pdf

[Marcin600]

New interesting article on cryovolcanism on Pluto “Large-scale cryovolcanic resurfacing on Pluto” (open access):
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-A...p?page=20220329
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-...pdf?origin=ppub (pdf)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29056-3

[Marcin600]

For those who missed it (like me ) - two (open) articles on the origin of the red polar cap on Charon (July 5, 2022):
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-A...p?page=20220705
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...29/2021GL097580
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...29/2021GL097580 - pdf
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq5701
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.abq5701 - pdf

[Marcin600]

The PI’s Perspective: Extending Exploration and Making Distant Discoveries, August 23, 2022:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Per...tive_08_23_2022

quote: "...we’ll be searching for new KBOs to study, or even to fly by if we can reach a target with our remaining fuel supply of about 11 kilograms (24 pounds). Those searches are continuing on two of the world’s largest telescopes – the Japanese Subaru telescope in Hawaii and the U.S. Gemini South telescope in Chile – and have collected exquisite data that our team is analyzing. The searches have been enhanced by some new machine learning data analysis tools, developed last year and refined this year, that increase the KBO detection rates considerably over what human scouring of the data has yielded in the past. Further boosting the Subaru effort is a more efficient sky filter that we provided for the telescope and will be pressed into service next year..."

[Explorer1]

Great update as usual. I am wondering, though from this:

Transmitting the remaining data from the Arrokoth encounter back to Earth

What remains on board to still be transmitted, if it was obviously not of high priority to receive before?


Has it also been ruled out to look back at the (inner) solar system, as Voyager 1 once did so memorably? The Sun is still too bright even now to risk LORRI, is data transmission the bottleneck, or is there some other reason (would Earth even be visible at all?) to not update the classic Pale Blue Dot image?

[scalbers]

Maybe a Pale Blue Dot image can be risked at the very end of the mission as mentioned at the end of this reporter's story.

[dtolman]

The website centauri-dreams.org has an excellent summation of the presentations concerning New Horizons at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on March 14th, if anyone is interested. Covers the formation of Arrokoth, bladed terrain on Pluto's farside, and the search for KBOs that the spacecraft can observe.

[Explorer1]

How much of the remaining fuel could be allotted to make an intercept of a second KBO? I know the earlier a manouvre is made, the less delta-v is needed, but there must always be some leftover for the further extended mission (and data transmission of course). Is there any estimate of the percentage available for maneuvering, or could there be some situation where it would be better to 'stay the course' and not do a flyby?

[Alan Stern]

How much of the remaining fuel could be allotted to make an intercept of a second KBO? I know the earlier a manouvre is made, the less delta-v is needed, but there must always be some leftover for the further extended mission (and data transmission of course). Is there any estimate of the percentage available for maneuvering, or could there be some situation where it would be better to 'stay the course' and not do a flyby?

We have about 30 m/sec to devote to this if the maneuver is made this year. After that the number declines as we spend fuel to do other science.

-Alan

[kenny]

I don't recall ever seeing this amazing close-up of Pluto's moon Nix before...

"Pluto's approximately 50-km wide moon Nix was imaged by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015. The red area is likely a region of tholin deposition and/or formation. Tholins are abiotic complex organic solids possibly produced when ultraviolet light from the faraway Sun breaks down molecules of methane that escape Pluto."

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/J. Major


Photo of Nix

[Antdoghalo]

That photo has been around for a while. It's just less color saturated than most versions.