Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.4409h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #44.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.565
Other
Scientific paper
Nitrogen is a common constituent of atmospheres in the solar system. Its high volatility means it is always a gas in the atmosphere of earth and Titan, relatively close to the sun. On Triton and Pluto a portion of the nitrogen in the atmosphere freezes onto the surface as polar caps and experiences transport from pole to atmosphere to pole seasonally.
Do Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) such as Xena (UB313 2003) similarly have nitrogen atmospheres that spend part of the year as surface frost? How prevalent might these atmospheres be? How similar / dissimilar might the seasonal behavior of nitrogen on TNO's be to Triton and Pluto?
A finite-element thermal model was developed to understand seasonal transport of nitrogen on Triton and Pluto (Hansen and Paige, Icarus, 1994). This model has now been modified to apply to Xena. The model is parameterized, enabling exploration of parameter space such as albedo and emissivity of the surface, albedo and emissivity of the frost, obliquity, etc. Observables such as atmospheric pressure, integrated disk albedo, and polar cap boundaries are predicted as a function of time.
Early results show that if nitrogen is a component of Xena's surface frost it will be volatile and move seasonally between the polar caps and the atmosphere. The model predicts the fluctuations in atmospheric pressure and results show that the pressure can be high enough to be detectable from earth by stellar occultations when Xena is close to perihelion. Integrated disk albedo observed over a sufficiently long time span can yield Xena's obliquity.
Sedna (2003 VB12) and two other large bright TNO's, 2005 FY9 and 2003 EL61, have also been modelled.
This work was partially performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Hansen Candice
Paige David A.
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