Plutos interaction with its space environment: Solar Wind, Energetic Particles & Dust

Abstract

The New Horizons spacecraft carried three instruments that measured the space environment near Pluto as it flew by on 14 July 2015. The Solar Wind Around Pluto instrument revealed an interaction region confined sunward of Pluto to within about 6 Pluto radii. The surprisingly small size is consistent with a reduced atmospheric escape rate as well as a particularly high solar wind flux. The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI) observations suggested ions are accelerated and-or deflected around Pluto. In the wake of the interaction region PEPSSI observed suprathermal particle fluxes about one tenth the flux in the interplanetary medium, increasing with distance downstream. The Student Dust Counter, which measures radius greater than 1.4 um grains, detected 1 candidate impact from 5days before to 5 days after closest approach, indicating an upper limit for the dust density in the Pluto system of 4.6 per cubic km.

References in corpus (11)

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• Pluto's Haze as a Surface Material
• Formation of Charon's Red Poles From Seasonally Cold-Trapped Volatiles
• The New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission
• Mass-loading of the solar wind at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -- Observations and modelling
• Modeling the Solar Wind at the Ulysses, Voyager, and New Horizons Spacecraft
• Primordial N2 provides a cosmochemical explanation for the existence of Sputnik Planitia, Pluto
• The Puzzling Detection of X-rays From Pluto by Chandra
• Modeling Pluto's Minimum Pressure: Implications for Haze Production
• The New Horizons and Hubble Space Telescope Search For Rings, Dust, and Debris in the Pluto-Charon System
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• A Pluto-Charon Sonata: The Dynamical Architecture of the Circumbinary Satellite System
• Cryogenic-specific reddish coloration by cryoplasma: New explanation to color diversity of outer solar system objects
• Chemical reactions in the nitrogen-acetone ice induced by cosmic ray analogs: relevance for the Solar System
• Pluto Geologic Map: Use of Crater Data to Understand Age Relationships
• Takeout and Delivery: Erasing the Dusty Signature of Late-stage Terrestrial Planet Formation
• Nitrogen Loss from Pluto's Birth to the Present Day via Atmospheric Escape, Photochemical Destruction, and Impact Erosion