Support Observations For New Horizons: Pluto's Solar Phase Curve As Measured By The Cassini Spacecraft And A New Ground-based Optical Lightcurve.

Details Support Observations For New Horizons: Pluto's Solar Phase Curve As Measured By The Cassini Spacecraft And A New Ground-based Optical Lightcurve. Support Observations For New Horizons: Pluto's Solar Phase Curve As Measured By The Cassini Spacecraft And A New Ground-based Optical Lightcurve.

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3601h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #36.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.460

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

Sequence planning for the New Horizons flyby of Pluto on 2015 July 14 requires an accurate estimation of the surface scattering properties at high solar phase angles ( 90 deg). As seen from the Earth, however, the solar phase angle of Pluto never exceeds 1.9 deg. We are fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to begin to regularly integrate Cassini-ISS imaging of Pluto into Cassini Optical Navigation (Op-Nav) sequencing. We report on space-based photometric observations of Pluto on the following dates, with the solar phase angles listed in parenthesis: 2007 March 31 (11.94 deg), 2008 March 01 (13.63 deg), 2008 July 09 (14.21 deg). Additional Cassini Op-Nav imaging of Pluto was scheduled for 2007 September 12 and 2007 October 05 but were lost due to spacecraft safing and a data overrun event, respectively. Reduction of the Op-Nav imaging of Pluto is made complex by the extremely dense stellar background: near-simultaneous observations of the Pluto fields at the JPL Table Mountain Observatory (TMO) 0.6-meter telescope allows for proper subtraction of faint background sources. Combined data from Cassini-ISS and TMO data gives a preliminary phase coefficient in the R band of Beta = 0.06 +/- 0.02 mag per deg. We shall present results that incorporate a more detailed analysis. In order to constrain potential volatile transport on the surface of Pluto due to changing solar illumination geometry and heliocentric distance, we have recently measured (2007 October-2008 March) a Bessel R-band rotational lightcurve of the planet at TMO which exhibits a lightcurve amplitude of 0.15 +/- 0.02 mag. We shall compare our new lightcurve to historical Pluto lightcurve measurements and to the expected secular lightcurve changes based on the HST albedo map.

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