activity
20072021
most citedThe Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons

485 citations · 3.1k across the 35 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

35 papers

astro-ph.EP2021

The Dark Side of Pluto

Tod R. Lauer, John R. Spencer, Tanguy Bertrand +12

During its departure from Pluto, New Horizons used its LORRI camera to image a portion of Pluto's southern hemisphere that was in a decades-long seasonal winter darkness, but still…

astro-ph.EP2021★ 19 cited

Morphological Comparison of Blocks in Chaos Terrains on Pluto, Europa, and Mars

Helle L. Skjetne, Kelsi N. Singer, Brian M. Hynek +12

Chaos terrains are characterized by disruption of preexisting surfaces into irregularly arranged mountain blocks with a chaotic appearance. Several models for chaos formation have…

astro-ph.EP2020★ 9 cited

Charon: A brief history of tides

Alyssa Rose Rhoden, Helle L. Skjetne, Wade G. Henning +9

In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto and its moon Charon, providing the first clear look at the surface of Charon. New Horizons images revealed an ancient surface,…

astro-ph.IM2020

The Search for MeV Electrons 2-45 AU from the Sun with the Alice Instrument Microchannel Plate Detector Aboard New Horizons

B. A. Keeney, M. Versteeg, J. Wm. Parker +14

The Alice UV spectrograph aboard NASA's New Horizons mission is sensitive to MeV electrons that penetrate the instrument's thin aluminum housing and interact with its microchannel…

astro-ph.EP2020★ 14 cited

Pluto's Ultraviolet Spectrum, Surface Reflectance, and Airglow Emissions

Andrew J. Steffl, Leslie A. Young, Darrell F. Strobel +16

During the New Horizons spacecraft's encounter with Pluto, the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph conducted a series of observations that detected emissions from both the interplanetar…

astro-ph.EP2019★ 9 cited

Distribution and Energy Balance of Pluto's Nitrogen Ice, as seen by New Horizons in 2015

Briley Lewis, John Stansberry, Bryan Holler +10

Pluto's surface is geologically complex because of volatile ices that are mobile on seasonal and longer time scales. Here we analyzed New Horizons LEISA spectral data to globally m…

astro-ph.EP2019

Plutos Far Side

S. A. Stern, O. L. White, P. J. McGovern +11

The New Horizons spacecraft provided near global observations of Pluto that far exceed the resolution of Earth-based data sets. Most Pluto New Horizons analysis hitherto has focuse…

astro-ph.IM2019★ 13 cited

Photometric precision of a Si:As impurity band conduction mid-infrared detector and application to transit spectroscopy

Taro Matsuo, Thomas P. Greene, Roy R. Johnson +3

Transit spectroscopy is the most promising path toward characterizing nearby terrestrial planets at mid-infrared wavelengths in the next 20 years. The Spitzer Space telescope has a…

astro-ph.EP2019★ 61 cited

Pluto's Haze as a Surface Material

W. M. Grundy, T. Bertrand, R. P. Binzel +37

Pluto's atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto's icy bedrock and from the…

astro-ph.EP2019★ 60 cited

Formation of Charon's Red Poles From Seasonally Cold-Trapped Volatiles

W. M. Grundy, D. P. Cruikshank, G. R. Gladstone +38

A unique feature of Pluto's large satellite Charon is its dark red northern polar cap. Similar colours on Pluto's surface have been attributed to organic macromolecules produced by…

astro-ph.EP2019★ 47 cited

The CH4 cycles on Pluto over seasonal and astronomical timescales

T. Bertrand, F. Forget, O. M. Umurhan +13

New Horizons observations suggest that CH4 on Pluto has a complex history, involving reservoirs of different composition, thickness and stability controlled by volatile processes o…

astro-ph.EP2019★ 155 cited

Impact Craters on Pluto and Charon Indicate a Deficit of Small Kuiper Belt Objects

K. N. Singer, W. B. McKinnon, B. Gladman +20

The flyby of Pluto and Charon by the New Horizons spacecraft provided high-resolution images of cratered surfaces embedded in the Kuiper belt, an extensive region of bodies orbitin…

astro-ph.IM2018★ 57 cited

The Origins Space Telescope

Cara Battersby, Lee Armus, Edwin Bergin +36

The Origins Space Telescope, one of four large Mission Concept studies sponsored by NASA for review in the 2020 US Astrophysics Decadal Survey, will open unprecedented discovery sp…

astro-ph.EP2018★ 26 cited

The Lyman-α Sky Background as Observed by New Horizons

G. Randall Gladstone, Wayne R. Pryor, S. Alan Stern +22

Recent observations of interplanetary medium (IPM) atomic hydrogen Lyman-α (Lyα) emission in the outer solar system, made with the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph on New Horizons (N…

astro-ph.EP2018★ 74 cited

The nitrogen cycles on Pluto over seasonal and astronomical timescales

T. Bertrand, F. Forget, O. M. Umurhan +13

Pluto's landscape is shaped by the cycles of the volatile ices covering its surface. In particular, the Sputnik Planitia (SP) ice sheet displays a large diversity of terrains, with…

astro-ph.EP2017★ 14 cited

The New Horizons and Hubble Space Telescope Search For Rings, Dust, and Debris in the Pluto-Charon System

Tod R. Lauer, Henry B. Throop, Mark R. Showalter +11

We searched for dust or debris rings in the Pluto-Charon system before, during, and after the New Horizons encounter. Methodologies included searching for back-scattered light duri…

astro-ph.EP2017★ 6 cited

New Horizons Upper Limits on O in Pluto's Present Day Atmosphere

J. A. Kammer, S. A. Stern, G. R. Gladstone +5

The surprising discovery by the Rosetta spacecraft of molecular oxygen (O) in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Bieler et al. 2015) challenged our understanding of t…

astro-ph.EP2017★ 13 cited

Evidence for Possible Clouds in Pluto's Present Day Atmosphere

S. A. Stern, J. A. Kammer, E. L. Barth +10

Several trace constituents can reach saturation vapor pressure in Pluto's present day atmosphere. As such, we describe a search for discrete could features in Pluto's atmosphere us…

astro-ph.EP2017★ 117 cited

Structure and Composition of Pluto's atmosphere from the New Horizons Solar Ultraviolet Occultation

Leslie A. Young, Joshua A. Kammer, Andrew J. Steffl +23

The Alice instrument on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft observed an ultraviolet solar occultation by Pluto's atmosphere on 2015 July 14. The transmission vs. altitude was sensitive…

astro-ph.EP2016★ 85 cited

Constraints on the Microphysics of Pluto's Photochemical Haze from New Horizons Observations

Peter Gao, Siteng Fan, Michael L. Wong +12

The New Horizons flyby of Pluto confirmed the existence of hazes in its atmosphere. Observations of a large high- to low- phase brightness ratio, combined with the blue color of th…

astro-ph.EP2016★ 48 cited

Modeling glacial flow on and onto Pluto's Sputnik Planitia

O. M. Umurhan, A. D. Howard, J. M. Moore +12

Observations of Pluto's surface made by the New Horizons spacecraft indicates present-day nitrogen ice glaciation in and around the basin known as Sputnik Planum. Motivated by thes…

astro-ph.EP2016★ 71 cited

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

F. Bagenal, M. Horányi, D. J. McComas +23

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…

astro-ph.EP2016★ 21 cited

The First High-Phase Observations of a KBO: New Horizons Imaging of (15810) 1994 JR1 from the Kuiper Belt

Simon B. Porter, John R. Spencer, Susan Benecchi +12

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft observed (15810) 1994 JR, a 3:2 resonant Kupier Belt Object (KBO), using the LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on November 2, 2015 from a…

astro-ph.EP2016★ 271 cited

The Geology of Pluto and Charon Through the Eyes of New Horizons

Jeffrey M. Moore, William B. McKinnon, John R. Spencer +38

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has revealed the complex geology of Pluto and Charon. Pluto's encounter hemisphere shows ongoing surface geological activity centered on a vast basin…