HST Photometry of Triton: Evidence for a Changing Surface in the Outer Solar System

Details HST Photometry of Triton: Evidence for a Changing Surface in the Outer Solar System HST Photometry of Triton: Evidence for a Changing Surface in the Outer Solar System

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3810b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #38.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.465

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Triton is one of the few bodies in the solar system with observed cryo-volcanic activity, in the form of plumes (Soderblom et al. 1990). Prompted by evidence from previous observations at ground and space-based telescopes of possible seasonal surface changes on Triton (Young & Stern 1999), we proposed to confirm and characterize these changes using the HST ACS instrument to image Triton at UV, B, V, I and Methane-band wavelengths over as much of its surface as visible from near Earth in 2005. Preliminary analysis indicates a rotation light curve amplitude in excess of that predicted by static models (Hillier et al. 1994 & Hillier 1999) for visual wavelengths, and significant departures from observations taken 12 years earlier in the UV. Surface brightness maps generated from the data show significant departures from the Voyager images obtained in 1989. We will describe in detail these differences which set constraints on activity and surface temperature as well as composition. Such constraints have profound implications for our understanding of Triton's evolution as well as the history of other outer solar system bodies that may undergo similar geophysical processes or have similar composition, such as Pluto (Buratti et al. 2003, Young et al. 2001).
References
Buratti, B.J., Hillier, J.K., Heinze, A.,Hicks, M.D., Tryka, K.A., Mosher, J.A., Ward, J., Garske, M., Young, J., & Atienza-Rosel, J. Icarus, 162, 171.
Hillier, J., Veverka, J., Helfenstein, P., & Lee, P. 1994, Icarus, 109, 296.
Hillier, J.K. 1999, Icarus, 139, 202.
Soderblom, L.A., Becker, T.L., Kieffer, S.W., Brown, R.H., Hansen, C.J., & Johnson, T.V. 1990, Science, 250, 410.
Young, L.A., & Stern, A.S. 1999, AJ, 122, 449.
Young, E. F.; Binzel, R. P.; Crane, K. 2001, AJ, 121, 552.

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