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| Titel |
Dust ablation in Pluto’s atmosphere |
| VerfasserIn |
Mihaly Horanyi, Andrew Poppe, Zoltan Sternovsky |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250124250
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-3652.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Based on measurements by dust detectors onboard the Pioneer 10/11 and New Horizons
spacecraft the total production rate of dust particles born in the Edgeworth Kuiper Belt (EKB)
has been be estimated to be on the order of 5 ⋅ 103 kg/s in the approximate size range of 1 - 10
μm. Dust particles are produced by collisions between EKB objects and their
bombardment by both interplanetary and interstellar dust particles. Dust particles of EKB
origin, in general, migrate towards the Sun due to Poynting-Robertson drag but
their distributions are further sculpted by mean-motion resonances as they first
approach the orbit of Neptune and later the other planets, as well as mutual collisions.
Subsequently, Jupiter will eject the vast majority of them before they reach the inner solar
system.
The expected mass influx into Pluto atmosphere is on the order of 200 kg/day, and the
arrival speed of the incoming particles is on the order of 3 - 4 km/s. We have followed the
ablation history as function of speed and size of dust particles in Pluto’s atmosphere, and
found that volatile rich particles can fully sublimate due to drag heating and deposit their
mass in narrow layers. This deposition might promote the formation of the haze layers
observed by the New Horizons spacecraft. This talk will explore the constraints on the
composition of the dust particles by comparing the altitude of the deposition layers to the
observed haze layers. |
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