Solar Wind at 33 AU: Setting Bounds on the Pluto Interaction for New Horizons

Abstract

The NASA New Horizons spacecraft flies past Pluto on July 14, 2015, carrying two instruments that detect charged particles. Pluto has a tenuous, extended atmosphere that is escaping the weak gravity of the planet. The interaction of the solar wind with the escaping atmosphere of Pluto depends on solar wind conditions as well as the vertical structure of the atmosphere. We have analyzed Voyager 2 particles and fields measurements between 25 and 39 AU and present their statistical variations. We have adjusted these predictions to allow for the declining activity of the Sun and solar wind output. We summarize the range of SW conditions that can be expected at 33 AU and survey the range of scales of interaction that New Horizons might experience. Model estimates for the solar wind stand-off distance vary from approximately 7 to 1000 RP with our best estimate being around 40 RP (where we take the radius of Pluto to be RP=1184 km).

29 pages, 9 Figures. Submitted version accepted by JGR for publication August 2015

References in corpus (4)

• The New Horizons Pluto Kuiper belt Mission: An Overview with Historical Context
• The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) Instrument Aboard New Horizons
• New Horizons: Anticipated Scientific Investigations at the Pluto System
• Exploring the spatial, temporal, and vertical distribution of methane in Pluto's atmosphere

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Interstellar Pickup Ion Observations to 38 AU
• Plutos interaction with its space environment: Solar Wind, Energetic Particles & Dust
• In Situ Observations of Preferential Pickup Ion Heating at an Interplanetary Shock
• Modeling the Solar Wind at the Ulysses, Voyager, and New Horizons Spacecraft
• The Effect of Cosmic Rays on Cometary Nuclei: I Dose deposition
• The Puzzling Detection of X-rays From Pluto by Chandra