[meteorite-list] SwRI Researchers Discover New Evidence for Complex Molecules on Pluto's Surface

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:28:21 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201112211728.pBLHSLeO022397_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2011/pluto.htm
  
SwRI researchers discover new evidence for complex molecules on
Pluto's surface

For immediate release

Boulder, Colo. - Dec. 20, 2011 - The new and highly sensitive Cosmic
Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a
strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on Pluto's surface, providing new
evidence that points to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or
nitrile molecules lying on the surface, according to a paper recently
published in the Astronomical Journal by researchers from Southwest
Research Institute and Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Such chemical species can be produced by the interaction of sunlight or
cosmic rays with Pluto's known surface ices, including methane, carbon
monoxide and nitrogen.

The project, led by SwRI's Dr. Alan Stern, also included SwRI
researchers Dr. John Spencer and Adam Shinn, and Nebraska Wesleyan
University researchers Dr. Nathaniel Cunningham and student Mitch Hain.

"This is an exciting finding because complex Plutonian hydrocarbons and
other molecules that could be responsible for the ultraviolet spectral
features we found with Hubble may, among other things, be responsible
for giving Pluto its ruddy color," said Stern.

The team also discovered evidence of changes in Pluto's ultraviolet
spectrum compared to Hubble measurements from the 1990s. The changes may
be related to differing terrains seen now versus in the 1990s, or to
other effects, such as changes in the surface related to a steep
increase in the pressure of Pluto's atmosphere during that same time span.

"The discovery we made with Hubble reminds us that even more exciting
discoveries about Pluto's composition and surface evolution are likely
to be in store when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto in
2015," Stern added.

This research was supported by a grant from the Space Telescope Science
Institute.

Editors: A copy of the science paper by Stern et al. is available at
http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/143/1/22/. For more information
about NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, go to http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.

Images to accompany this story: www.swri.org/press/2011/pluto.htm
<http://www.swri.org/press/2011/pluto.htm>.

For more information, contact Maria Martinez, (210) 522-3305,
Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, PO Drawer
28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510./
Received on Wed 21 Dec 2011 12:28:21 PM PST