Climate change and haze on Pluto
Abstract
Pluto is the smallest solar system body known to have a significant atmosphere and its atmosphere faces the most dramatic seasonal change of any known atmosphere in our solar system. We will determine the current structure of Pluto's atmosphere using high spectral resolution observations of CH4, the second most abundant component of the atmosphere after N2. These observations will unambiguously reveal whether Pluto's atmosphere contains a haze layer and probe the structure of Pluto's lower atmosphere. Further, these observations are important toward our long term understanding of Pluto's changing climate as the planet recedes from perihelion (Sept. 1989), the New Horizons spacecraft approaches (flyby in 2015), and the north polar region approaches an annual maximum in solar heating (~2018).
- Publication:
-
Keck Observatory Archive NIRSPEC
- Pub Date:
- February 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010koa..prop..295R