Triton's atmosphere Options

[ngunn]

Interesting news item:
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/A_Summer...Triton_999.html

[pjam]

Thanks for posting the article link!
...There's also a recent UMSF discussion on Triton's atmosphere and aerobraking where this 40 year seasonal variability in atm pressure might play into plans for aerobraking a spacecraft!
I wonder what the mechanism is for seasonal growth of atmosphere -is it mostly from sublimation or is there a major role for the geysers?
-pjam

[Drkskywxlt]

I wonder what the mechanism is for seasonal growth of atmosphere -is it mostly from sublimation or is there a major role for the geysers?
-pjam

From the article:

As Triton's southern hemisphere warms up, a thin layer of frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide on Triton's surface sublimates into gas, thickening the icy atmosphere as the season progresses during Neptune's 165-year orbit around the Sun. A season on Triton lasts a little over 40 years, and Triton passed the southern summer solstice in 2000.

Based on the amount of gas measured, Lellouch and his colleagues estimate that Triton's atmospheric pressure may have risen by a factor of four compared to the measurements made by Voyager 2 in 1989, when it was still spring on the giant moon.

I can't imagine what mechanism would make the geysers seasonal on their own. More likely they're due to internal processes.

[Rob Pinnegar]

I can't imagine what mechanism would make the geysers seasonal on their own. More likely they're due to internal processes.

That's certainly possible; however, I seem to remember reading at one time that they could also be due to solar heating.

It's been a long time since then, but I think the basic idea was that some sunlight could be getting through the top layer of ice, and warming the nitrogen beneath it. Phil, do you remember this one?