Tootfinder

Evidence of haze control of Pluto’s atmospheric heat balance from JWST/MIRI thermal light curves: #Pluto

Investigating the extent of bladed terrain on Pluto via photometric surface roughness
I. Mishra, R. Dhingra, B. J. Buratti, B. Seignovert, O. L. White
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05491

Investigating the extent of bladed terrain on Pluto via photometric surface roughness
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft discovered fields of sub-parallel sets of steep ridges situated in the high-altitude, low-latitude regions in Pluto's encounter hemisphere called 'bladed terrain'. Thought to be formed due to sublimational erosion of methane ice, bladed terrain represents an active response of Pluto's landscape to current and past climates. The observation of a strong methane signature within the low latitudes of Pluto's non-encounter hemisphere points to the possibility that this…

There is around a 25 year window to pinpoint this proposed new dwarf planet, because its orbit takes 25000 years to complete… which probably means that the rate at which new ones will be discovered by the @… will help us better define how empty or how full the space between Neptune and the Kuiper Belt is…

An Extreme Cousin for Pluto? Possible Dwarf Planet Discovered at Solar System’s Edge
A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system.

Pluto Geologic Map: Use of Crater Data to Understand Age Relationships
Kelsi N. Singer, Oliver L. White, Sarah Greenstreet, Jeffrey M. Moore, David A. Williams, Rosaly M. C. Lopes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00254

Pluto Geologic Map: Use of Crater Data to Understand Age Relationships
Pluto's surface displays a wide variety of geologic units from smooth plains to extremely rugged mountainous expanses. These terrains range in age from young, actively resurfaced regions (no observable craters even in the highest-resolution New Horizons images) to old, heavily cratered, eroded regions. Here we expand upon the crater data analysis and the independent crater data set used in the production of a 1:7M scale geologic map of Pluto that is to be published by the United States Geologic…

Libration of Pluto's argument of perihelion and the role of the major planets
Takashi Ito, Renu Malhotra
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.21821 https://

Libration of Pluto's argument of perihelion and the role of the major planets
Pluto's argument of perihelion is known to librate around $90^\circ$. This libration is related to the secular phenomenon known as the von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (vZLK) oscillation. In this work, we make a quantitative assessment of the influence of Neptune's mean motion resonance and of the other giant planets' secular perturbations on the libration of Pluto's argument of perihelion. Here, a parameter $k^2 = (1-e^2) \cos^2 I$ is the key where $e$ is eccentricity and $I$ is inclination. When $k^2$ …