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Exploring Pluto's Atmosphere: New Horizons Mission Discoveries

Learn about the composition, structure, and dynamics of Pluto's atmosphere revealed by the New Horizons spacecraft. Delve into the mysteries of ice volcanoes, volatile eruptions, and the complex atmospheric processes on this distant dwarf planet.

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Exploring Pluto's Atmosphere: New Horizons Mission Discoveries

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  1. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB Pluto Geography 441/541 S/16 Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue

  2. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB New Horizons Visits Pluto • Planetary structure

  3. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB New Horizons Visits Pluto • Ice volcanoes? • Wright and Picard montes: • What kind of volatile would erupt? • Heat source?

  4. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB New Horizons Visits Pluto • Atmosphere • Composition: • ~90% N2 • ~10% other gasses • CH4 • CO • derivatives • - ethane, ethylene, acetelyne, hydrogen cyanide • - formed from N2, CH4, CO (cosmic rays) • - may include tholins • - once formed, precipitate onto surface • probably all of the atmosphere freezes onto surface going toward aphelion • at perihelion, ices sublimate to form an atmosphere, which NH caught

  5. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB New Horizons Visits Pluto • Atmosphere • Temperature structure: • thin boundary layer < 1 km • stratosphere with temperatures rising with altitude to ~30 km to ~100-110 K (greenhouse effect of methane) • mesosphere with temperatures cooling with altitude to ~ 200 km and then stable at ~80 K: no thermosphere

  6. C.M. Rodrigue, 2016 Geography, CSULB New Horizons Visits Pluto • Atmosphere • Pressure: • very low (dekapascals) • climbing through time as N pole points to sun and N2 sublimates • S pole will experience its freezing eventually but not yet, so pressure rises • over billions of years, this may ablate atmosphere as sun forces sublimation and there's no source of replenishment (much like a comet)

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