IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-021-27811-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A bimodal distribution of haze in Pluto’s atmosphere

Author

Listed:
  • Siteng Fan

    (California Institute of Technology
    LMD/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, PSL Research University, École Normale Supérieure, École Polytechnique, CNRS)

  • Peter Gao

    (Carnegie Institution for Science)

  • Xi Zhang

    (University of California Santa Cruz)

  • Danica J. Adams

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Nicholas W. Kutsop

    (Cornell University)

  • Carver J. Bierson

    (University of California Santa Cruz
    Arizona State University)

  • Chao Liu

    (California Institute of Technology
    Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology)

  • Jiani Yang

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Leslie A. Young

    (Southwest Research Institute)

  • Andrew F. Cheng

    (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

  • Yuk L. Yung

    (California Institute of Technology
    California Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Pluto, Titan, and Triton make up a unique class of solar system bodies, with icy surfaces and chemically reducing atmospheres rich in organic photochemistry and haze formation. Hazes play important roles in these atmospheres, with physical and chemical processes highly dependent on particle sizes, but the haze size distribution in reducing atmospheres is currently poorly understood. Here we report observational evidence that Pluto’s haze particles are bimodally distributed, which successfully reproduces the full phase scattering observations from New Horizons. Combined with previous simulations of Titan’s haze, this result suggests that haze particles in reducing atmospheres undergo rapid shape change near pressure levels ~0.5 Pa and favors a photochemical rather than a dynamical origin for the formation of Titan’s detached haze. It also demonstrates that both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres can produce multi-modal hazes, and encourages reanalysis of observations of hazes on Titan and Triton.

Suggested Citation

  • Siteng Fan & Peter Gao & Xi Zhang & Danica J. Adams & Nicholas W. Kutsop & Carver J. Bierson & Chao Liu & Jiani Yang & Leslie A. Young & Andrew F. Cheng & Yuk L. Yung, 2022. "A bimodal distribution of haze in Pluto’s atmosphere," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27811-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27811-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27811-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-27811-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David K. Sing & Jonathan J. Fortney & Nikolay Nikolov & Hannah R. Wakeford & Tiffany Kataria & Thomas M. Evans & Suzanne Aigrain & Gilda E. Ballester & Adam S. Burrows & Drake Deming & Jean-Michel Dés, 2016. "A continuum from clear to cloudy hot-Jupiter exoplanets without primordial water depletion," Nature, Nature, vol. 529(7584), pages 59-62, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27811-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.