Bibcode
Abernathy, M. R.; Tegler, S. C.; Grundy, W. M.; Licandro, J.; Romanishin, W.; Cornelison, D.; Vilas, F.
Bibliographical reference
Icarus, Volume 199, Issue 2, p. 520-525.
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2
2009
Journal
Citations
14
Refereed citations
13
Description
We describe optical spectroscopic observations of the icy dwarf planet
Eris with the 6.5-m MMT telescope and the Red Channel Spectrograph. We
report a correlation, that is at the edge of statistical significance,
between blue shift and albedo at maximum absorption for five methane ice
bands. We interpret the correlation as an increasing dilution of methane
ice with another ice component, probably nitrogen, with increasing depth
into the surface. We suggest a mechanism to explain the apparent
increase in nitrogen with depth. Specifically, if we are seeing Eris 50
degrees from pole-on [Brown, M.E., Schaller, L., 2008. Science 316,
1585], the pole we are seeing now at aphelion was in winter darkness at
perihelion. Near perihelion, sublimation could have built up atmospheric
pressure on the sunlit (summer) hemisphere sufficient to drive winds
toward the dark (winter) hemisphere, where the winds would condense.
Because nitrogen is more volatile and scarcer than methane, it
sublimated from the sunlit hemisphere relatively early in the season, so
the early summer atmosphere was nitrogen rich, and so was the ice
deposited on the winter pole. Later in the season, much of the nitrogen
was exhausted from the summer pole, but there was plenty of methane,
which continued to sublimate. At this point, the atmosphere was more
depleted in nitrogen, as was the ice freezing out on top of the earlier
deposited nitrogen rich ice. Our increasing nitrogen abundance with
depth apparently contradicts the Licandro et al. [Licandro, J., Grundy,
W.M., Pinilla-Alonso, N., Leisy, P., 2006. Astron. Astrophys. 458, L5
L8] result of a decreasing nitrogen abundance with depth. A comparison
of observational, data reduction, and analysis techniques between the
two works, suggests the difference between the two works is real. If so,
we may be witnessing the signature of weather on Eris. The work reported
here is intended to trigger further observational effort by the
community.
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Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
Julia de
León Cruz