The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a water-ice crust, geologically young surface units, surface ice convection, wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow. Pluto's atmosphere is highly extended, with trace hydrocarbons, a global haze layer, and a surface pressure near 10 microbars. Pluto's diverse surface geology and long-term activity raise fundamental questions about how small planets remain active many billions of years after formation. Pluto's large moon Charon displays tectonics and evidence for a heterogeneous crustal composition; its north pole displays puzzling dark terrain. Small satellites Hydra and Nix have higher albedos than expected.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/350/6258/aad1815.full.pdf

The Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons.

As the search for Earth-like exoplanets gathers pace, in order to understand them, we need comprehensive theories for how planetary atmospheres form and evolve. Written by two well-known planetary scientists, this text explains the physical and chemical principles of atmospheric evolution and planetary atmospheres, in the context of how atmospheric composition and climate determine a planet's habitability. The authors survey our current understanding of the atmospheric evolution and climate on Earth, on other rocky planets within our Solar System, and on planets far beyond. Incorporating a rigorous mathematical treatment, they cover the concepts and equations governing a range of topics, including atmospheric chemistry, thermodynamics, radiative transfer, and atmospheric dynamics, and provide an integrated view of planetary atmospheres and their evolution. This interdisciplinary text is an invaluable one-stop resource for graduate-level students and researchers working across the fields of atmospheric science, geochemistry, planetary science, astrobiology, and astronomy.

Atmospheric Evolution on Inhabited and Lifeless Worlds

In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Pluto system at high speed, humanity's first close look at this enigmatic system on the outskirts of our solar system. In a series of papers, the New Horizons team present their analysis of the encounter data downloaded so far: Moore et al. present the complex surface features and geology of Pluto and its large moon Charon, including evidence of tectonics, glacial flow, and possible cryovolcanoes. Grundy et al. analyzed the colors and chemical compositions of their surfaces, with ices of H_2O, CH_4, CO, N_2, and NH_3 and a reddish material which may be tholins. Gladstone et al. investigated the atmosphere of Pluto, which is colder and more compact than expected and hosts numerous extensive layers of haze. Weaver et al. examined the small moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra, which are irregularly shaped, fast-rotating, and have bright surfaces. Bagenal et al. report how Pluto modifies its space environment, including interactions with the solar wind and a lack of dust in the system. Together, these findings massively increase our understanding of the bodies in the outer solar system. They will underpin the analysis of New Horizons data, which will continue for years to come.

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The atmosphere of Pluto as observed by New Horizons

Context. Pluto possesses a thin atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen, in which the detection of methane has been reported.Aims. The goal is to constrain essential but so far unknown parameters of Pluto's atmosphere, such as the surface pressure, lower atmosphere thermal stucture, and methane mixing ratio.Methods. We use high-resolution spectroscopic observations of gaseous methane and a novel analysis of occultation lightcurves.Results. We show that (i) Pluto's surface pressure is currently in the 6.5–24 μ bar range, (ii) the methane mixing ratio is 0.5± 0.1%, adequate to explain Pluto's inverted thermal structure and ~100 K upper atmosphere temperature, and (iii) a troposphere is not required by our data, but if present, it has a depth of at most 17 km, i.e. less than one pressure scale height; in this case methane is supersaturated in most of it. The atmospheric and bulk surface abundances of methane are strikingly similar, a possible consequence of a CH4 -rich top surface layer.

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Pluto's lower atmosphere structure and methane abundance from high-resolution spectroscopy and stellar occultations

Stellar occultations—the passing of a relatively nearby body in front of a background star—can be used to probe the atmosphere of the closer body with a spatial resolution of a few kilometres (ref. 1). Such observations can yield the scale height, temperature profile, and other information about the structure of the occulting atmosphere. Occultation data acquired for Pluto's atmosphere in 1988 revealed a nearly isothermal atmosphere2 above a radius of ∼1,215 km. Below this level, the data could be interpreted as indicating either an extinction layer or the onset of a large thermal gradient, calling into question the fundamental structure of this atmosphere. Another question is to what extent Pluto's atmosphere might be collapsing as it recedes from the Sun (passing perihelion in 1989 in its 248-year orbital period), owing to the extreme sensitivity of the equilibrium surface pressure to the surface temperature. Here we report observations at a variety of visible and infrared wavelengths of an occultation of a star by Pluto in August 2002. These data reveal evidence for extinction in Pluto's atmosphere and show that it has indeed changed, having expanded rather than collapsed, since 1988.

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The recent expansion of Pluto's atmosphere

Pluto's tenuous nitrogen atmosphere was first detected by the imprint left on the light curve of a star that was occulted by the planet in 1985 (ref. 1), and studied more extensively during a second occultation event in 1988 (refs 2-6). These events are, however, quite rare and Pluto's atmosphere remains poorly understood, as in particular the planet has not yet been visited by a spacecraft. Here we report data from the first occultations by Pluto since 1988. We find that, during the intervening 14 years, there seems to have been a doubling of the atmospheric pressure, a probable seasonal effect on Pluto.

A. Carvajal

Papers

Large changes in Pluto's atmosphere as revealed by recent stellar occultations