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Related papers: Solar Wind at 33 AU: Setting Bounds on the Pluto I…

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The discovery of Pluto in 1930 presaged the discoveries of both the Kuiper Belt and ice dwarf planets, which are the third class of planets in our solar system. From the 1970s to the 19990s numerous fascinating attributes of the Pluto…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-10-17 S. Alan Stern , William Grundy , William B. McKinnon , Harold A. Weaver , Leslie A. Young

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft has flown into the most dense and previously unexplored region of our solar system's zodiacal cloud. While PSP does not have a dedicated dust detector, multiple instruments onboard are sensitive to…

Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between about 20 - 70 AU from the Sun has indicated the presence of an unmodeled, small, constant, Doppler blue shift which can be interpreted as a constant…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2008-11-26 Michael Martin Nieto

The GJ 436 planetary system is an extraordinary system. The Neptune-size planet that orbits the M3 dwarf revealed in the Ly$\alpha$ line an extended neutral hydrogen atmosphere. This material fills a comet-like tail that obscures the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-01-06 C. Villarreal D'Angelo , A. A. Vidotto , A. Esquivel , G. Hazra , A. Youngblood

The outer solar system provides a unique, quiet vantage point from which to observe the universe around us, where measurements could enable several niche astrophysical science cases that are too difficult to perform near Earth. NASA's New…

N2 is abundant in Pluto's atmosphere and on its surface, but the supply is depleted by prodigious atmospheric escape. We demonstrate that cometary impacts could not have delivered enough N mass to resupply Pluto's N2 atmospheric escape over…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-07-21 Kelsi N. Singer , S. Alan Stern

Looking at the Mars-solar wind interaction on a larger spatial scale than the near Mars region, the planet can be seen as an ion source interacting with the solar wind, in many ways like a comet, but with a smaller ion source region. Here…

Space Physics · Physics 2015-12-09 Mats Holmstrom , Xiao-Dong Wang

Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto's mass has been a value that has repeatedly been calculated. Additionally, the search for Planet X prior to Pluto's discovery results in mass calculations that date back several decades earlier. Over its…

Popular Physics · Physics 2016-04-04 Michael B. Lund

Parker Solar Probes's (PSP)'s unique orbital path allows us to observe the solar wind closer to the Sun than ever before. Essential to advancing our knowledge of solar wind and energetic particle formation is identifying the sources of PSP…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2022-08-17 Samantha Wallace , Shaela I. Jones , C. Nick Arge , Nicholeen Viall , Carl J. Henney

Since the launch on 2018/08/12, Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has completed its first and second orbits around the Sun, having reached down to 35.7 solar radii at each perihelion. In anticipation of the exciting new data at such unprecedented…

The New Horizons spacecraft has found evidence for geologic activity on the surface of Pluto, including extensional tectonic deformation of its water ice bedrock (see Moore et al., 2016). One mechanism that could drive extensional tectonic…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-03 Noah P. Hammond , Amy C. Barr , Edgar M. Parmentier

In early 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Jovian magnetosphere on the dusk side. Here, we present results from a novel means of detecting energetic electrons along New Horizons' trajectory: the background count rate of the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2013-01-17 A. J. Steffl , A. B. Shinn , G. R. Gladstone , J. Wm. Parker , K. D. Retherford , D. C. Slater , M. H. Versteeg , S. A. Stern

Plasma velocity and magnetic field measurements from the Voyager 2 mission are used to study solar wind turbulence in the slow solar wind at two different heliocentric distances, 5 and 29 astronomical units, sufficiently far apart to…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2016-01-20 M. Iovieno , L. Gallana , F. Fraternale , J. D. Richardson , M. Opher , D. Tordella

We present a first theoretical modeling of joint Parker Solar Probe (PSP) - Metis/Solar Orbiter (SolO) quadrature observations Telloni et al 2022c. The combined observations describe the evolution of a slow solar wind plasma parcel from the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2022-10-05 Laxman Adhikari , Gary P. Zank , Daniele Telloni , Lingling Zhao

The first exploration of Pluto was motivated by (i) the many intriguing aspects of this body, its atmosphere, and its giant impact binary-planet formation; as well as (ii) the scientific desire to initiate the reconnaissance of the…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-18 Stuart J. Robbins , S. Alan Stern , Richard Binzel , Will Grundy , Doug Hamilton , Rosaly Lopes , Bill McKinnon , Cathy Olkin

The atmospheres of highly irradiated exoplanets are observed to undergo hydrodynamic escape. However, due to strong pressures, stellar winds can confine planetary atmospheres, reducing their escape. Here, we investigate under which…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-04-15 A. A. Vidotto , A. Cleary

A new planet has been recently discovered around Proxima Centauri. With an orbital separation of $\sim$$1.44$ au and a minimum mass of about $7$ $M_{\oplus}$, Proxima c is a prime direct imaging target for atmospheric characterization. The…

The Slow Solar Wind Connection Solar Orbiter Observing Plan (Slow Wind SOOP) was developed to utilise the extensive suite of remote sensing and in situ instruments on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission to answer significant…

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission presents a unique opportunity to study the near-Sun solar wind closer than any previous spacecraft. During its fourth and fifth solar encounters, PSP had the same orbital trajectory, meaning that solar…