The Pluto-Charon system as revealed during the mutual events
This year is the last of a five-year interval when the Earth passes through the orbital plane of Pluto and its satellite Charon, causing alternate transits and occultations of the satellite as seen from Earth. Spectrophotometric observations of the system made both in and out of eclipse were obtained in the visual and near-infrared. The Pluto-Charon system is found to be compositionally diverse, a result unanticipated before the mutual events. Water frost was identified and is ubiquitous on Charon's surface, while Pluto has a methane veneer. The spectral activity of Pluto's methane is seen to vary with rotational phase. On Pluto, surface albedo appears to be correlated with composition. Dark regions tend to be redder and depleted in methane relative to bright regions. Dependence of geometric albedo with wavelength were calculated for both bodies, from 0.4 to 2.4 microns. The albedo model of Marcialis (1983, 1988) has emerged favorably after several severe tests. Accurate radii and system bulk density derived from the mutual events were used to construct models of phenomena unanticipated a decade ago. Recent interior models are used to show that viscous relaxation of topography is expected to be significant on Pluto but not on Charon. Horizontal topographic features on the primary probably are limited in extent to less than a few tens of kilometers. Globally, Pluto's figure is essentially hydrostatic. Astrometric observations of the system are presented, as evidence that the discovery of Charon just seven years before the initial mutual events was not fortuitous, but most probable. The astrometry will help to refine Pluto's orbit, making prediction of future stellar occultations by the system more reliable.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6000750
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALBEDO
ALKANES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DATA
ECLIPSE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FORECASTING
FROST
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
ICE
INFORMATION
METHANE
NUMERICAL DATA
ORBITS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANETS
PLUTO PLANET
SATELLITES
SPECTRA
TOPOGRAPHY
WATER