The Pluto System After New Horizons

Once perceived as distant, cold, dark, and seemingly unknowable, Pluto had long been marked as the farthest and most unreachable frontier for solar system exploration. After Voyager accomplished its final planetary reconnaissance at Neptune in 1989, Pluto and its cohort in the Kuiper Belt beckoned as the missing puzzle piece for completing the first reconnaissance of our solar system. In the decades following Voyager, a mission to the Pluto system was not only imagined but also achieved, culminating with the historic 2015 flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto and its satellite system (“the Pluto system”), including its largest moon, Charon, have been revealed to be worlds of enormous complexity that fantastically exceed preconceptions.

The Pluto System After New Horizons seeks to become the benchmark for synthesizing our understanding of the Pluto system. The volume’s lead editor is S. Alan Stern, who also serves as NASA’s New Horizons Principal Investigator; co-editors Richard P. Binzel, William M. Grundy, Jeffrey M. Moore, and Leslie A. Young are all co-investigators on New Horizons. Leading researchers from around the globe have spent the last five years assimilating Pluto system flyby data returned from New Horizons. The chapters in this volume form an enduring foundation for ongoing study and understanding of the Pluto system. The volume also advances insights into the nature of dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt objects, providing a cornerstone for planning new missions that may return to the Pluto system and explore others of the myriad important worlds beyond Neptune.

1136896343
The Pluto System After New Horizons

Once perceived as distant, cold, dark, and seemingly unknowable, Pluto had long been marked as the farthest and most unreachable frontier for solar system exploration. After Voyager accomplished its final planetary reconnaissance at Neptune in 1989, Pluto and its cohort in the Kuiper Belt beckoned as the missing puzzle piece for completing the first reconnaissance of our solar system. In the decades following Voyager, a mission to the Pluto system was not only imagined but also achieved, culminating with the historic 2015 flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto and its satellite system (“the Pluto system”), including its largest moon, Charon, have been revealed to be worlds of enormous complexity that fantastically exceed preconceptions.

The Pluto System After New Horizons seeks to become the benchmark for synthesizing our understanding of the Pluto system. The volume’s lead editor is S. Alan Stern, who also serves as NASA’s New Horizons Principal Investigator; co-editors Richard P. Binzel, William M. Grundy, Jeffrey M. Moore, and Leslie A. Young are all co-investigators on New Horizons. Leading researchers from around the globe have spent the last five years assimilating Pluto system flyby data returned from New Horizons. The chapters in this volume form an enduring foundation for ongoing study and understanding of the Pluto system. The volume also advances insights into the nature of dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt objects, providing a cornerstone for planning new missions that may return to the Pluto system and explore others of the myriad important worlds beyond Neptune.

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Overview

Once perceived as distant, cold, dark, and seemingly unknowable, Pluto had long been marked as the farthest and most unreachable frontier for solar system exploration. After Voyager accomplished its final planetary reconnaissance at Neptune in 1989, Pluto and its cohort in the Kuiper Belt beckoned as the missing puzzle piece for completing the first reconnaissance of our solar system. In the decades following Voyager, a mission to the Pluto system was not only imagined but also achieved, culminating with the historic 2015 flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto and its satellite system (“the Pluto system”), including its largest moon, Charon, have been revealed to be worlds of enormous complexity that fantastically exceed preconceptions.

The Pluto System After New Horizons seeks to become the benchmark for synthesizing our understanding of the Pluto system. The volume’s lead editor is S. Alan Stern, who also serves as NASA’s New Horizons Principal Investigator; co-editors Richard P. Binzel, William M. Grundy, Jeffrey M. Moore, and Leslie A. Young are all co-investigators on New Horizons. Leading researchers from around the globe have spent the last five years assimilating Pluto system flyby data returned from New Horizons. The chapters in this volume form an enduring foundation for ongoing study and understanding of the Pluto system. The volume also advances insights into the nature of dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt objects, providing a cornerstone for planning new missions that may return to the Pluto system and explore others of the myriad important worlds beyond Neptune.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780816542109
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Publication date: 08/10/2021
Series: The University of Arizona Space Science Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 600
File size: 71 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

S. Alan Stern is the New Horizons Mission Principal Investigator and lead editor of The Pluto System After New Horizons.


Richard P. Binzel, a New Horizons co-investigator, is a professor of planetary science and joint professor of aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


William M. Grundy, a New Horizons co-investigator, is a planetary scientist at Lowell Observatory.


Jeffrey M. Moore, a New Horizons co-investigator, is a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center.


Leslie A. Young, a New Horizons co-investigator, is a planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute, serving as deputy project scientist for the New Horizons mission.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Contributing Authors

Scientific Organizing Committee and Acknowledgment of Reviewers

Foreword

Preface

Part 1: System Background

The Discoveries of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt | R. P. Binzel and K. Schindler

Early Pluto Science, the Imperative for Exploration, and New Horizons | J. I. Lunine, S. A. Stern, L. A. Young, M. J. Neufeld, and R. P. Binzel

The Transneptunian Objects as the Context for Pluto: An Astronomical Perspective | M. A. Barucci, C. M. Dalle Ore, and S. Fornasier

Part 2: Pluto

The Geology of Pluto | O. L. White, J. M. Moore, A. D. Howard, P. M. Schenk, K. N. Singer, D. A. Williams, and R. M. C. Lopes

Geodynamics of Pluto | F. Nimmo and W. B. McKinnon

The Landscapes of Pluto as Witness to Climate Evolution | J. M. Moore and A. D. Howard

Impact Craters on Pluto and Charon and Terrain Age Estimates | K. N. Singer, S. Greenstreet, P. M. Schenk, S. J. Robbins, and V. J. Bray

Colors and Photometric Properties of Pluto | C. B. Olkin, C. J. A. Howett, S. Protopapa, W. M. Grundy, A. J. Verbiscer, and M. W. Buie

Surface Composition of Pluto | D. P. Cruikshank, W. M. Grundy, S. Protopapa, B. Schmitt, and I. R. Linscott

Rheological and Thermophysical Properties and Some Processes Involving Common Volatile Materials Found on Pluto’s Surface | O. M. Umurhan, C. J. Ahrens, and V. F. Chevrier

Composition and Structure of Pluto’s Atmosphere | M. E. Summers, L. A. Young, G. R. Gladstone, and M. J. Person

Photochemistry and Haze Formation | K. E. Mandt, A. Luspay-Kuti, A. Cheng, K.-L. Jessup, and P. Gao

Dynamics of Pluto’s Atmosphere | F. Forget, T. Bertrand, D. Hinson, and A. Toigo

Pluto’s Volatile and Climate Cycles on Short and Long Timescales | L. A. Young, T. Bertrand, L. M. Trafton, F. Forget, A. M. Earle, and B. Sicardy

Atmospheric Escape | D. F. Strobel

Solar Wind Interaction with the Pluto System | F. Bagenal, D. J. McComas, H. A. Elliott, E. J. Zirnstein, R. L. McNutt Jr., C. M. Lisse, P. Kollmann, P. A. Delamere, and N. P. Barnes

Part 3: Charon and Pluto's Small Satellites

The Geology and Geophysics of Charon | J. Spencer, R. A. Beyer, S. J. Robbins, K. N. Singer, and F. Nimmo

Charon: Colors and Photometric Properties | C. J. A. Howett, C. B. Olkin, S. Protopapa, W. M. Grundy, A. J. Verbiscer, and B. J. Buratti

Surface Composition of Charon | S. Protopapa, J. C. Cook, W. M. Grundy, D. P. Cruikshank, C. M. Dalle Ore, and R. A. Beyer

The Small Satellites of Pluto | S. B. Porter, A. J. Verbiscer, H. A. Weaver, J. C. Cook, and W. M. Grundy

Part 4: Origins, Interiors, and the Big Picture

On the Origin of the Pluto System | R. M. Canup, K. M. Kratter, and M. Neveu

Formation, Composition, and History of the Pluto System: A Post-New Horizons Synthesis | W. B. McKinnon, C. R. Glein, T. Bertrand, and A. R. Rhoden

Transneptunian Space and the Post-Pluto Paradigm | A. H. Parker

Future Exploration of the Pluto System | M. W. Buie, J. D. Hofgartner, V. J. Bray, and E. Lellouch

The Exploration of the Primordial Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth (2014 MU69) by New Horizons S. A. Stern, J. R. Spencer, H. A. Weaver, and C. B. Olkin

Epilogue: New Horizons: An Abbreviated Photographic Journal | M. Soluri

Appendix A: Pluto and Charon Nomenclature | R. A. Beyer and M. Showalter

Appendix B: The New Horizons Instrument Suite | H. A. Weaver

Index

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