Bibcode
Buie, M. W.; Elliot, J. L.; Kidger, M. R.; Bosh, A. S.; Saá, O.; Van Malderen, R.; Uytterhoeven, K.; Davignon, G.; Dunham, E. W.; Olkin, C. B.; Taylor, B. W.; Wasserman, L. H.; Clancy, K.; Person, M. J.; Levine, S. E.; Stone, R. C.; Peréz-González, P. G.; Pasachoff, J. M.; Souza, S. P.; Ticehurst, D. R.; Fitzsimmons, A.
Referencia bibliográfica
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #34, #21.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.877
Fecha de publicación:
9
2002
Número de citas
6
Número de citas referidas
5
Descripción
We will report the results from an occultation of P126A by Pluto on the
night of 2002 July 20 UT. The event was successfully observed with a
0.4-m telescope at Mamiña, Chile under photometric conditions.
Additional data were collected at CTIO on a 0.6-m telescope with heavy
interference from clouds. The CTIO observations preclude an occultation
at that location thus forcing the Mamiña chord to lie south of
the centerline. Less-constraining negative results were obtained from
the Canary Islands. The Mamiña lightcurve shows an occultation
profile that clearly indicates the continued presence of a substantial
atmosphere around Pluto. The profile does not show any trace of the
``kink'' seen in the 1988 occultation data at a similar distance from
the centerline of the shadow. Depending on the specific model
assumptions, the minimum distance of Mamiña from the center of
Pluto's shadow lies in the range 1025-1130 km, which corresponds to a
range of 1180-1260 km for the deepest radius probed in Pluto's
atmosphere. These new occultation data cannot be well fitted with models
derived from the 1988 data. Hence one or more changes have occurred in
Pluto's atmosphere in the past 14 years. Either the haze/thermal
gradient altitude has decreased (or disappeared altogether), or the
temperature above this level has increased (accompanied by an increase
in pressure), or some combination of the these two. These results
challenge the current level of understanding of the nature of Pluto's
atmosphere and its surface-atmosphere interaction. This work was
supported, in part, by NASA Grants NAG5-10444, NAG5-9008, by NOAO and
CTIO operated for NSF by AURA, NASA through the New Horizons project,
and Research Corporation.