Can I read Nitrogen Loss from Pluto's Birth to the Present Day via Atmospheric Escape, Photochemical Destruction, and Impact Erosion on EtoBox?

Nitrogen Loss from Pluto's Birth to the Present Day via Atmospheric Escape, Photochemical Destruction, and Impact Erosion by Johnson, Perianne E.; Young, Leslie A.; Nesvorny, David; Zhang, Xi is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Nitrogen Loss from Pluto's Birth to the Present Day via Atmospheric Escape, Photochemical Destruction, and Impact Erosion about?

We estimate the loss of nitrogen from Pluto over its lifetime, including the giant planet instability period, which we term the "Wild Years." We analyze the orbital migration of 53 simulated Plutinos, which are Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) captured into 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Neptune during the instability. This orbital migration brought the Plutinos from 20 to 30 au to their present-day orbits near 40 au along a nonlinear path that includes orbits with semimajor axes from 10 to 100 au. We model the thermal history that results from this migration and estimate the volatile loss rates due to the ever-changing thermal environment. Due to the early Sun's enhanced ultraviolet radiation, the photochemical destruction rate during the Wild Years was a factor of 100 higher than the present-day rate, but this only results in a loss of ~10 m global equivalent layer (GEL). The enhanced Jeans escape rate varies wildly with time, and a net loss of ~100 cm GEL is predicted. Additionally, we model the impact history during the migration and find that impacts are a net source, not loss, of N2, contributing ~100 cm GEL. The 100 cm GEL is 0.1% of the amount of N2 in Sputnik Planitia. We theref

Author

Johnson, Perianne E.; Young, Leslie A.; Nesvorny, David; Zhang, Xi

Published

2024

Language

EN