Searching for CO in Pluto's Atmosphere

Details Searching for CO in Pluto's Atmosphere Searching for CO in Pluto's Atmosphere

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.2007c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #20.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.984

Physics

Scientific paper

Understanding the abundance of CO in Pluto's atmosphere is vital for three reasons: (i) the amount of CO helps us to understand the physics of multi-component volatile transfer, (ii) CO is expected to be an important cooling species in Pluto's atmosphere and (iii) the CO mole fraction is an unconstrained parameter in all atmospheric models based on occultation data. Since the first Pluto occultation in 1988, occultations have shown Pluto's atmosphere is undergoing changes consistent with an expanding atmosphere and a greater surface pressure (Elliot et al., 2003, 2007; Sicardy et al. 2003; Young et al 2008). Obtaining a baseline measurement of the CO mole fraction is vital before the arrival of New Horizons in 2015 to understand the changes in Pluto's atmosphere. Earlier attempts to detect CO have failed (Young et al., 2001, Bockelee-Morvan et al., 2001, Lellouch et al., 2010), and only produced upper limits. The tightest constraint on the CO/N2 mole fraction is < 5x10-3 or < 1 cm-am (Lellouch et al., 2010). In spring 2010, we obtained high-resolution (λ/Δλ 54,000) spectra of Pluto at 2335-2345 nm using the Phoenix instrument on Gemini South. This spectral window covers the R(0)-R(5) lines of the 2-0 transition of CO as well as many CH4 lines. The total integration time of the data is 6.3 hours obtained under 0.8-1.0 aresecond seeing. The data will be discussed and the results presented.
JCC would like to acknowledge that this research was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Ames Research Center, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA.

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