The Pluto System After New Horizons

Description

Once perceived as distant, cold, dark, and seemingly unknowable, Pluto had long been marked as the farthest and most unreachable frontier for solar system exploration. After Voyager accomplished its final planetary reconnaissance at Neptune in 1989, Pluto and its cohort in the Kuiper Belt beckoned as the missing puzzle piece for completing the first reconnaissance of our solar system. In the decades following Voyager, a mission to the Pluto system was not only imagined but also achieved, culminating with the historic 2015 flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto and its satellite system (“the Pluto system”), including its largest moon, Charon, have been revealed to be worlds of enormous complexity that fantastically exceed preconceptions. The Pluto System After New Horizons seeks to become the benchmark for synthesizing our understanding of the Pluto system. The volume’s lead editor is S. Alan Stern, who also serves as NASA’s New Horizons Principal Investigator; co-editors Richard P. Binzel, William M. Grundy, Jeffrey M. Moore, and Leslie A. Young are all co-investigators on New Horizons. Leading researchers from around the globe have spent the last five years assimilating Pluto system flyby data returned from New Horizons. The chapters in this volume form an enduring foundation for ongoing study and understanding of the Pluto system. The volume also advances insights into the nature of dwarf planets and Kuiper Belt objects, providing a cornerstone for planning new missions that may return to the Pluto system and explore others of the myriad important worlds beyond Neptune. Contents List of Contributing Authors Scientific Organizing Committee and Acknowledgment of Reviewers Foreword Preface Part 1: System Background The Discoveries of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt | R. P. Binzel and K. Schindler Early Pluto Science, the Imperative for Exploration, and New Horizons | J. I. Lunine, S. A. Stern, L. A. Young, M. J. Neufeld, and R. P. Binzel The Transneptunian Objects as the Context for Pluto: An Astronomical Perspective | M. A. Barucci, C. M. Dalle Ore, and S. Fornasier Part 2: Pluto The Geology of Pluto | O. L. White, J. M. Moore, A. D. Howard, P. M. Schenk, K. N. Singer, D. A. Williams, and R. M. C. Lopes Geodynamics of Pluto | F. Nimmo and W. B. McKinnon The Landscapes of Pluto as Witness to Climate Evolution | J. M. Moore and A. D. Howard Impact Craters on Pluto and Charon and Terrain Age Estimates | K. N. Singer, S. Greenstreet, P. M. Schenk, S. J. Robbins, and V. J. Bray Colors and Photometric Properties of Pluto | C. B. Olkin, C. J. A. Howett, S. Protopapa, W. M. Grundy, A. J. Verbiscer, and M. W. Buie Surface Composition of Pluto | D. P. Cruikshank, W. M. Grundy, S. Protopapa, B. Schmitt, and I. R. Linscott Rheological and Thermophysical Properties and Some Processes Involving Common Volatile Materials Found on Pluto’s Surface | O. M. Umurhan, C. J. Ahrens, and V. F. Chevrier Composition and Structure of Pluto’s Atmosphere | M. E. Summers, L. A. Young, G. R. Gladstone, and M. J. Person Photochemistry and Haze Formation | K. E. Mandt, A. Luspay-Kuti, A. Cheng, K.-L. Jessup, and P. Gao Dynamics of Pluto’s Atmosphere | F. Forget, T. Bertrand, D. Hinson, and A. Toigo Pluto’s Volatile and Climate Cycles on Short and Long Timescales | L. A. Young, T. Bertrand, L. M. Trafton, F. Forget, A. M. Earle, and B. Sicardy Atmospheric Escape | D. F. Strobel Solar Wind Interaction with the Pluto System | F. Bagenal, D. J. McComas, H. A. Elliott, E. J. Zirnstein, R. L. McNutt Jr., C. M. Lisse, P. Kollmann, P. A. Delamere, and N. P. Barnes Part 3: Charon and Pluto's Small Satellites The Geology and Geophysics of Charon | J. Spencer, R. A. Beyer, S. J. Robbins, K. N. Singer, and F. Nimmo Charon: Colors and Photometric Properties | C. J. A. Howett, C. B. Olkin, S. Protopapa, W. M. Grundy, A. J. Verbiscer, and B. J. Buratti Surface Composition of Charon | S. Protopapa, J. C. Cook, W. M. Grundy, D. P. Cruikshank, C. M. Dalle Ore, and R. A. Beyer The Small Satellites of Pluto | S. B. Porter, A. J. Verbiscer, H. A. Weaver, J. C. Cook, and W. M. Grundy Part 4: Origins, Interiors, and the Big Picture On the Origin of the Pluto System | R. M. Canup, K. M. Kratter, and M. Neveu Formation, Composition, and History of the Pluto System: A Post-New Horizons Synthesis | W. B. McKinnon, C. R. Glein, T. Bertrand, and A. R. Rhoden Transneptunian Space and the Post-Pluto Paradigm | A. H. Parker Future Exploration of the Pluto System | M. W. Buie, J. D. Hofgartner, V. J. Bray, and E. Lellouch The Exploration of the Primordial Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth (2014 MU69) by New Horizons S. A. Stern, J. R. Spencer, H. A. Weaver, and C. B. Olkin Epilogue: New Horizons: An Abbreviated Photographic Journal | M. Soluri Appendix A: Pluto and Charon Nomenclature | R. A. Beyer and M. Showalter Appendix B: The New Horizons Instrument Suite | H. A. Weaver Index