The Seasonal Evolution of the Atmospheres of Pluto and Other Dwarf Planets
碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 太空科學研究所 === 106 === Dwarf planets in Kuiper belt are too far for us to study in detail by telescopic observations from Earth for past several decades. After the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby observations of the Pluto-Charon system in July 2015, we now have a better understanding...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
2018
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| Online Access: | http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/s64hux |
| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 太空科學研究所 === 106 === Dwarf planets in Kuiper belt are too far for us to study in detail by telescopic observations from Earth for past several decades. After the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby observations of the Pluto-Charon system in July 2015, we now have a better understanding of these faraway objects.
The Sputnik Planitia of Pluto is one of the most important discoveries of the New Horizons spacecraft at its flyby observations of the Pluto-Charon system in July 2015. SP is located at the northern mid-latitude hemisphere in the antipodal position to Charon on the opposite side. It contains a large quantity of the nitrogen ice on Pluto and the content of Pluto’s atmosphere is likely controlled by the variable sublimation rate of the Sputnik Planitia’s ice.
In this work, we use a coupled treatment to compute the surface temperature and pressure of the Sputnik Planitia on Pluto when it revolves around the sun in its eccentric orbit with special attention to the sublimation process of the nitrogen ice stored in the Sputnik Planitia. In addition, we will apply this model to other Pluto-like dwarf planets in Kuiper belt which surfaces could be mainly composed of nitrogen ice. This set of model calculations allows us to explore the range of the atmospheric contents and mass loss process of the icy dwarf planets.
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