Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.6206p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #62.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.541
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
We present results of 1-5μm spectroscopy of the Pluto-Charon dwarf planet system. The observations were performed in August 2005 with the NACO instrument at the 8.2m-VLT telescope Yepun of the European Southern Observatory in Paranal/Chile. NACO's adaptive optics facility allowed to resolve easily this binary system, this way enabling spectroscopy of the two objects separately. These spectroscopic observations are complemented by a model interpretation of the surface ice composition of Pluto and Charon.
For Pluto, it is the first time that the complete L band is measured without unresolved contamination by light from Charon, while its M band spectrum was never measured before. Using Hapke modeling of the spectrum, we find that a geographic mixture of pure methane ice, methane diluted in nitrogen and tholin fits Pluto's spectrum from 1 to 4μm, although not in all details. Our data suggest the presence of further so far unknown and thus unidentified absorption bands centered around 4.0μm and 4.6μm. The latter absorption could be related to
the presence of nitriles, arising from C and N connected with a triple bond and possibly CO ice. The difficulty in the modeling is due to the fact that the nitrile band is highly variable in position as a result of variations in its chemical environment.
Charon's spectrum is measured in the wavelength range (1-4)μm, for the first time simultaneously with, but isolated from that of Pluto. It was previously studied in some detail in the JHK wavelength region, but was never measured beyond 2.5μm. Since the JHK region of Charon's spectrum is dominated by water ice absorption, it came not unexpectedly that very deep and broad water ice signatures are found in the L band part of Charon's surface spectrum. We model Charon's spectrum with pure H2O ice darkened by a spectrally neutral
continuum absorber.
Boehnhardt Hermann
Cruikshank Dale P.
Grundy Will M.
Herbst Tom
Merlin Frederic
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