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Pick‐up ions at Pluto
Author(s) -
Kecskeméty K.,
Cravens T. E.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/93gl00487
Subject(s) - pluto , physics , solar wind , ion , comet , astrobiology , atmosphere (unit) , interplanetary medium , bow wave , computational physics , atomic physics , interplanetary spaceflight , plasma , nuclear physics , meteorology , quantum mechanics
Methane molecules escaping from Pluto's atmosphere are ionized, and the resulting ions are picked up by the solar wind. The mass loading associated with this ion pick‐up can produce a comet‐like interaction of the solar wind with Pluto. Heavy ion gyroradii are as large as a half million km in the weak interplanetary magnetic field that exists at 30 AU, which is about an order of magnitude larger than the size of the “interaction region.” We have calculated velocity space distributions of pick‐up ions using numerically determined ion trajectories. The predicted pick‐up ion fluxes are high enough to be detectable by standard charged particle detectors as far upstream of Pluto as 10 6 km.