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Register a new userDiscovery of carbon monoxide in the upper atmosphere of Pluto
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Plutos icy surface has changed colour and its atmosphere has swelled since its last closest approach to the Sun in 1989. The thin atmosphere is produced by evaporating ices, and so can also change rapidly, and in particular carbon monoxide should be present as an active thermostat. Here we report the discovery of gaseous CO via the 1.3mm wavelength J=2-1 rotational transition, and find that the line-centre signal is more than twice as bright as a tentative result obtained by Bockelee-Morvan et al. in 2000. Greater surface-ice evaporation over the last decade could explain this, or increased pressure could have caused the atmosphere to expand. The gas must be cold, with a narrow line-width consistent with temperatures around 50 K, as predicted for the very high atmosphere, and the line brightness implies that CO molecules extend up to approximately 3 Pluto radii above the surface. The upper atmosphere must have changed markedly over only a decade since the prior search, and more alterations could occur by the arrival of the New Horizons mission in 2015.
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The hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecule in the planetary atmosphere is key to the formation of building blocks of life. We present the spectroscopic detection of the rotational molecular line of nitrile species hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the atmosphere of Saturn using the archival data of the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in band 7 observation. The strong rotational emission line of HCN is detected at frequency $ u$ = 354.505 GHz (>4$sigma$ statistical significance). We also detect the rotational emission line of carbon monoxide (CO) at frequency $ u$ = 345.795 GHz. The statistical column density of hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide emission line is N(HCN)$sim$2.42$times$10$^{16}$ cm$^{-2}$ and N(CO)$sim$5.82$times$10$^{17}$ cm$^{-2}$. The abundance of HCN and CO in the atmosphere of Saturn relative to the H$_{2}$ is estimated to be f(HCN)$sim$1.02$times$10$^{-9}$ and f(CO)$sim$2.42$times$10$^{-8}$. We discussed possible chemical pathways to the formation of the detected nitrile gas HCN in the atmosphere of Saturn.
The space and ground-based observations have shown a lot of activities and instabilities in the atmosphere of the giant ice planet Neptune. Using the archival data of high resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) with band 7 observation, we present the spectroscopic detection of the rotational emission line of sulfur dioxide (SO$_{2}$) at frequency $ u$ = 343.476 GHz with transition J=57$_{15,43}$$-$58$_{14,44}$. We also re-detect the emission line of carbon monoxide (CO) at frequency $ u$ = 345.795 GHz with transition J=3$-$2. The molecular lines of SO$_{2}$ and CO in the atmosphere of Nepure are detected with the $geq$4$sigma$ statistical significance. The statistical column density of SO$_{2}$ is N(SO$_{2}$) = 2.61$times$10$^{15}$ cm$^{-2}$ with rotational temperature $T_{SO_{2}}$ = 50 K and the statistical column density CO is N(CO) = 1.86$times$10$^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ with $T_{CO}$ = 29 K. The typical mixing ratio in the atmosphere of Neptune for SO$_{2}$ is 1.24$times$10$^{-10}$ and CO is 0.88$times$10$^{-6}$. The SO$_{2}$ and CO gas in the atmosphere of Neptune may create due to Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts in Jovian planets since 1994.
Optical observations of the Oort cloud comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) show that its activity began at large heliocentric distances (up to 35 au), which cannot be explained by either the sublimation or the crystallization of water ice. Supervolatile sublimation, most likely of carbon monoxide (CO), has been proposed as a plausible driver of the observed mass loss. Here, we present the detection of the J = 2$-$1 rotational transition in outgassed CO from C/2017 K2 when at heliocentric distance $r_H$ = 6.72 au, using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The CO line is blue-shifted by 0.20$pm$0.03 km s$^{-1}$ with an area and width of 8.3$pm$2.3 mK km s$^{-1}$ and $0.28pm$0.08 km s$^{-1}$, respectively. The CO production rate is $Q_{CO} = (1.6pm0.5) times10^{27}$ s$^{-1}$. These are the first observations of a gaseous species in C/2017 K2 and provide observational confirmation of the role of supervolatile sublimation in this comet.
Optical transmission spectroscopy provides crucial constraints on the reference pressure levels and scattering properties for hot Jupiter atmospheres. For certain planets, where alkali atoms are detected in the atmosphere, their line profiles could serve as a good probe to link upper and lower atmospheric layers. WASP-21b is a Saturn-mass hot Jupiter orbiting a thick disc star, with a low density and an equilibrium temperature of 1333 K, which makes it a good target for transmission spectroscopy. Here, we present a low-resolution transmission spectrum for WASP-21b based in one transit observed by the OSIRIS spectrograph at the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), and a high-resolution transmission spectrum based in three transits observed by HARPS-N at Telescopio Nazinale Galileo (TNG) and HARPS at the ESO 3.6 m telescope. We performed spectral retrieval analysis on GTCs low-resolution transmission spectrum and report the detection of Na at a confidence level of $>$3.5-$sigma$. The Na line exhibits a broad line profile that can be attributed to pressure broadening, indicating a mostly clear planetary atmosphere. The spectrum shows a tentative excess absorption at the K D$_1$ line. Using HARPS-N and HARPS, we spectrally resolved the Na doublet transmission spectrum. An excess absorption at the Na doublet is detected during the transit, and shows a radial velocity shift consistent with the planet orbital motion. We proposed a metric to quantitatively distinguish hot Jupiters with relatively clear atmospheres from others, and WASP-21b has the largest metric value among all the characterized hot Jupiters. The detection of Na at both lower and upper atmosphere of WASP-21b reveals that it is an ideal target for future follow-up observations, providing the opportunity to understand the nature of its atmosphere across a wide range of pressure levels.
Observations made during the New Horizons flyby provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of Plutos atmosphere. While the lower atmosphere (at altitudes <200 km) is consistent with ground-based stellar occultations, the upper atmosphere is much colder and more compact than indicated by pre-encounter models. Molecular nitrogen (N$_2$) dominates the atmosphere (at altitudes <1800 km or so), while methane (CH$_4$), acetylene (C$_2$H$_2$), ethylene (C$_2$H$_4$), and ethane (C$_2$H$_6$) are abundant minor species, and likely feed the production of an extensive haze which encompasses Pluto. The cold upper atmosphere shuts off the anticipated enhanced-Jeans, hydrodynamic-like escape of Plutos atmosphere to space. It is unclear whether the current state of Plutos atmosphere is representative of its average state--over seasonal or geologic time scales.
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