Published February 28, 2020
| Supplemental Material
Journal Article
Open
Color, composition, and thermal environment of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth
- Creators
- Grundy, W. M.
-
Keane, J. T.
Abstract
The outer Solar System object (486958) Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU₆₉) has been largely undisturbed since its formation. We study its surface composition using data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft. Methanol ice is present along with organic material, which may have formed through irradiation of simple molecules. H₂O ice is not detected. This composition indicates hydrogenation of CO-rich ice and/or energetic processing of CH₄+H₂O ices in the cold, outer edge of the early Solar System. There are only small regional variations in color and spectra across the surface, suggesting Arrokoth formed from a homogeneous or well-mixed reservoir of solids. Microwave thermal emission from the winter night side is consistent with a mean brightness temperature of 29 ± 5 K.
Additional Information
© 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 12 June 2019; accepted 22 January 2020. Published online 13 February 2020. We gratefully thank the many hundreds of people who worked together on the New Horizons team. Their hard work enabled the encounter. Funding: Supported by NASA's New Horizons project via contracts NASW-02008 and NAS5-97271/TaskOrder30. JJK was supported by the National Research Council of Canada. SK acknowledges the support of a Hubble Fellowship, program number HST-HF2-51394.002 provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. MR acknowledges support by the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Cooperative Agreement Notice NNH13ZDA017C issued through the Science Mission Directorate. BS, LG, and EQ acknowledge support by the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). OMU acknowledges NASA Astrophysics Theory Program Grant Number NNX17AK59G for partial support of this work. Author contributions: WMG led authorship of the manuscript. WMG, CJAH, CBO, AHP, and SP analyzed the MVIC color data and wrote that section. WMG, AHP, SP, JCC, and DPC analyzed the LEISA spectral data and wrote that section. MKB and IRL analyzed the REX data and wrote that section. OMU did the thermal modeling and wrote that section, with input from WMG, CJAH, and LAY. WMG, DPC, DTB, SK, and MR wrote the implications section. CMDO, JJK, JTK, YJP, SBP, FS, JRS, SAS, AJV, and HAW contributed to data analysis and development of scientific ideas. All authors played roles in experimental design and/or provided feedback and insights on drafts of the manuscript. We declare no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All images, spacecraft data, and the shape model used in this paper are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4819110 and at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11485443. The three Charon observations used in flat-fielding the LEISA data are available at https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdings/nh-p-leisa-3-pluto-v3.0/data/20150714_029914/lsb_0299146219_0x54b_sci.fit, https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdings/nh-p-leisa-3-pluto-v3.0/data/20150714_029917/lsb_0299171308_0x53c_sci.fit, and https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdings/nh-p-leisa-3-pluto-v3.0/data/20150714_029917/lsb_0299175509_0x53c_sci.fit. Additional fully calibrated New Horizons data and higher-order data products will be released by the NASA Planetary Data System at https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/data_sb/missions/newhorizons/index.shtml in a series of stages in 2020 and 2021, due to the time required to fully downlink and calibrate the data.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - aay3705_Data-S1.zip
Supplemental Material - aay3705_Grundy_SM.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 101330
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200218-133326572.741
- NASW-02008
- NASA
- NAS5-97271
- NASA
- National Research Council of Canada
- HST-HF2-51394.002
- NASA Hubble Fellowship
- NAS5-26555
- NASA
- NNH13ZDA017C
- NASA
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
- NNX17AK59G
- NASA
- Created
-
2020-02-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field