Related papers: New Horizons Upper Limits on O$_2$ in Pluto's Pres…

The New Horizons ALICE instrument is a lightweight (4.4 kg), low-power (4.4 Watt) imaging spectrograph aboard the New Horizons mission to Pluto/Charon and the Kuiper Belt. Its primary job is to determine the relative abundances of various…

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in the outer Solar System are predominantly small, icy worlds long presumed to be atmosphereless except for the largest bodies. Until now, Pluto has been unique among TNOs in exhibiting a substantial…

Context: Pluto possesses a thin atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen, in which the detection of methane has been reported. Aims: The goal is to constrain essential but so far unknown parameters of Pluto's atmosphere such as the…

Context. During the last 30 years the surface of Pluto has been characterized, and its variability has been monitored, through continuous near-infrared spectroscopic observations. But in the visible range only few data are available. Aims.…

Simple theoretical calculations have suggested that small body impacts onto Pluto's newly discovered small satellites, Nix and Hydra, are capable of generating time-variable rings or dust sheets in the Pluto system. Using HST/ACS data…

The radio tracking apparatus of the New Horizons spacecraft, currently traveling to the Pluto system where its arrival is scheduled for July 2015, should be able to reach an accuracy of 10 m (range) and 0.1 mm s^-1 (range-rate) over…

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft observed (15810) 1994 JR$_1$, a 3:2 resonant Kupier Belt Object (KBO), using the LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on November 2, 2015 from a distance of 1.85 AU, and again on April 7, 2016 from a…

Next year, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft will have a close encounter with Pluto. In the present study we discuss some possibilities regarding what the spacecraft may encounter during its approach to Pluto. Among them we should include:…

We report new observations of molecular oxygen in absorption at z=0.685 in front of the radio source B0218+357. The lines at 56.3 and 118.7 GHz have been observed, redshifted to 33.4 and 70.5 GHz respectively, with the 12m at Kitt Peak, 43m…

A search for temporal changes on Pluto and Charon was motivated by (1) the discovery of young surfaces in the Pluto system that imply ongoing or recent geologic activity, (2) the detection of active plumes on Triton during the Voyager 2…

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 during the approach to Pluto (phase $\sim15^\circ$), in situ…

We have detected H$_2$O and O$_2$ absorption against the far-UV continuum of stars located on lines of sight near the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using the Alice imaging spectrograph on Rosetta. These stellar appulses…

NASA's New Horizons (NH) Pluto-Kuiper belt (PKB) mission was launched on 19 January 2006 on a Jupiter Gravity Assist (JGA) trajectory toward the Pluto system for a 14 July 2015 closest approach; Jupiter closest approach occurred on 28…

Recent measurements carried out at comet 67P/C-G with the ${\it Rosetta}$ probe revealed that molecular oxygen, O$_2$, is the fourth most abundant molecule in comets. Models show that O$_2$ is likely of primordial nature, coming from the…

The debris disk surrounding $\beta$~Pictoris has been observed with ALMA to contain a belt of CO gas with a distinct peak at $\sim$85 au. This CO clump is thought to be the result of a region of enhanced density of solids that collide and…

The Wide Angle Camera of the OSIRIS instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft is equipped with several narrowband filters that are centered on the emission lines and bands of various fragment species. These are used to determine the…

Triton possesses a thin atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen, sustained by the sublimation of surface ices. The goal is to determine the composition of Triton's atmosphere and to constrain the nature of surface-atmosphere…

Infrared observations of the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were carried out from July to September 2015, i.e., around perihelion (13 August 2015), with the high-resolution channel of the VIRTIS instrument onboard Rosetta. We present the…

Molecular oxygen has been detected in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with abundances in the 1-10% range by the ROSINA-DFMS instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft. Here we find that the radiolysis of icy grains in…

A combined fluid/kinetic model is developed to calculate thermally driven escape of N2 from Pluto's atmosphere for two solar heating conditions: no heating above 1450 km and solar minimum heating conditions. In the combined model,…