PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

SwRI scientists study nitrogen provision for Pluto's atmosphere

What resupplies the nitrogen content as its atmosphere is depleted?

2015-08-11
(Press-News.org) San Antonio -- August 11, 2015 -- The latest data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal diverse features on Pluto's surface and an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen gas. However, Pluto's small mass allows hundreds of tons of atmospheric nitrogen to escape into space each hour.

So where does all this nitrogen come from? Dr. Kelsi Singer, a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute, and her mentor Dr. Alan Stern, SwRI associate vice president and the science lead for the New Horizons mission, outlined likely sources in a paper titled, "On the Provenance of Pluto's Nitrogen." The Astrophysical Journal Letters accepted the paper for publication on July 15, just a day after the spacecraft's closest encounter with the icy dwarf planet (ApJ, 808, L50).

"More nitrogen has to come from somewhere to resupply both the nitrogen ice that is moving around Pluto's surface in seasonal cycles, and the nitrogen that is escaping off the top of the atmosphere as the result of heating by ultraviolet light from the Sun," said Singer. They looked at a number of different ways that nitrogen might be resupplied.

Singer and Stern wondered if comets could deliver enough nitrogen to Pluto's surface to resupply what is escaping its atmosphere. They also looked at whether craters made by the comets hitting the surface could excavate enough nitrogen - but that would require a very deep layer of nitrogen ice at the surface, which is not proven. The team also studied whether craters could expose more surface area, by punching through surface deposits that would likely be built up over time.

"We found that all of these effects, which are the major ones from cratering, do not seem to supply enough nitrogen to supply the escaping atmosphere over time," continued Singer. "While it's possible that the escape rate was not as high in the past as it is now, we think geologic activity is helping out by bringing nitrogen up from Pluto's interior."

And while the data weren't in before this paper was written, the newest images of Pluto show land forms that suggest heat is rising beneath the surface, with troughs of dark matter either collecting, or bubbling up, between flat segments of crust, which could be related.

"Our pre-flyby prediction, made when we submitted the paper, is that it's most likely that Pluto is actively resupplying nitrogen from its interior to its surface, possibly meaning the presence of ongoing geysers or cryovolcanism," said Stern. "As data from New Horizons comes in, we will be very interested to see if this proves true."

New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning.

INFORMATION:

Editors: Images to accompany this release are available at: http://www.swri.org/press/2015/pluto-atmosphere-nitrogen-provision.htm



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

SIV shrugs off antibodies in vaccinated monkeys

2015-08-11
New research on monkeys vaccinated against HIV's relative SIV calls into question an idea that has driven AIDS vaccine work for years. The assumption: a protective vaccine only needs to stimulate moderate levels of antibodies that neutralize the virus. However, scientists at Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Emory Vaccine Center have found that when SIV manages to infect vaccinated monkeys that have potent neutralizing antibodies in their blood, the virus appears to shrug the antibodies off. No stealthy escape by mutation was necessary. The results were ...

C-section could impact baby's ability to focus: York U study

2015-08-11
TORONTO, August 11 2015 -- There can be a difference in how well babies focus attention on an object of interest, depending on whether they were delivered by natural birth or Caesarean section, a recent York University study indicates. "Our research has revealed that being born by a C-section slows a baby's spatial attention, which plays a role in its ability to focus on a particular area or object of interest," says Professor Scott Adler in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health at YorkU. According to Adler and his co-researcher Audrey Wong Kee-You, very ...

Cutting costs: Sustainability matters even in complex networks

2015-08-11
Every day, we expend energy when we con­trol the net­works in our lives. For example, to drive our car, we utilize a net­work whose com­po­nents include the car's accel­er­ator, steering wheel, and brake. Knowing how much that effort "costs" can help deter­mine which com­po­nents to manipulate--and to what degree--to ensure the smoothest, safest ride as you acclerate from 55 to 90 miles per hour. On Monday, North­eastern researchers revealed just such a mea­suring strategy in a new paper pub­lished in Nature Physics. "We ...

New report recommends research priorities for Antarctic and Southern Ocean science

2015-08-11
WASHINGTON -- An initiative to better understand how melting ice sheets will contribute to sea-level rise, efforts to decode the genomes of organisms to understand evolutionary adaptations, and a next-generation cosmic microwave background experiment to address fundamental questions about the origin of the universe are the top research goals for Antarctic and Southern Ocean science recommended in a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report, which offers a strategic vision to guide the U.S. Antarctic Program at the National ...

Vortioxetine in depression: No hint of added benefit

2015-08-11
Vortioxetine (trade name: Brintellix) has been approved since December 2013 for the treatment of depression in adults, but did not become actually available before May 2015. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this drug offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Such an added benefit cannot be derived from the dossier because it contained no data evaluable for the assessment. SSRI is drug component of comparator therapy The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) distinguished between ...

Insulin degludec plus liraglutide: No hint of added benefit in type 2 diabetes

2015-08-11
The fixed-ratio combination of the two drugs insulin degludec and liraglutide (trade name: Xultophy) has been approved since September 2014 for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is given as an injection in addition to other blood-glucose lowering drugs when these alone or in combination with basal insulin are insufficient to lower blood glucose levels. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether this fixed-ratio combination offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Such ...

One technique therapists use that really helps depressed patients

2015-08-11
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Some depressed patients may be hoping for answers from their therapists, but a new study suggests questions may be the key. Researchers examined how cognitive therapy for depression achieves its positive effects. Their study is the first to show that depressed patients see substantial improvements in their depressive symptoms when their therapists use a technique called "Socratic questioning." These are a series of guided questions in which the therapist asks a patient to consider new perspectives on themselves and their place in the world. "People ...

C-sections could influence babies' ability to focus

2015-08-11
Being delivered through a caesarean section influences at least one form of babies' ability to concentrate. It slows their spatial attention, which plays a role in how well they are able to prioritize and focus on a particular area or object that is of interest. These are the findings of Scott Adler and Audrey Wong-Kee-You of York University in Canada, published in Springer's journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. Very early birth factors such as birth weight and a mother's age impact the development of a child. However, very little is known about how the actual ...

Chitin of insects and crustaceans found to be active against pathogenic microorganisms

2015-08-11
The study specifically concentrated on chitosan extracted from chitin in the carapaces of insects and crustaceans. The biopolymer was first discovered in 1859 but only recently has it become possible to establish its production within desired parameters, when researchers from the Bioengineering Center of RAS designed narrow-dispersion chitosan. This gave an opportunity to modern scientists to customize the biological properties of certain types of the biopolymer. "We found that some forms of chitosan are toxic. They can disrupt the membranes of pathogenic microorganisms" ...

Researchers develop fast test for invasive carp

2015-08-11
A Case Western Reserve University graduate student turned a research paper into a field test that quickly determines whether an Asian carp invading Lake Erie is sterile or can reproduce. If proven successful, the technique could save money and time in the effort to keep the carp out of the Great Lakes, where the fish could grow unchecked and devour food supplies and habitat critical to native species.. Grass carp, the species Ctenopharyngodon idella, have been introduced throughout the Midwest and South to clear ponds choked with weeds. Also called the white amur, fertile ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Mandatory standards for the indoor environment would result in immense benefits to the health and productivity of people around the world

Chickadees have unique neural “barcodes” for memories of stashing away food

Chickadees are memory geniuses. Their barcode-like neural activity may be to thank

Tiny orchid flowers pollinated by tiny flies

Researchers develop AI-based tool paving the way for personalized cancer treatments

Reports of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in predominantly republican vs democratic states

Patient out-of-pocket costs for biologic drugs after biosimilar competition

New Brigham research highlights combining prostate MRI with a blood test to avoid unnecessary prostate biopsies

Scientists discover a key quality-control mechanism in DNA replication

Lipids with potential health benefits in herbal teas

Synergically improved energy storage performance and stability in sol–gel processed BaTiO3/(Pb,La,Ca)TiO3/BaTiO3 tri-layer films with a crystalline engineered sandwich structure

International collaboration enabled participatory stock assessment on glass eel fisheries in West Java, Indonesia

Enhanced melanoma vaccine offers improved survival for men

Nearly one-third of patients with TBI have marginal or inadequate health literacy

Genetic causes of cerebral palsy uncovered through whole-genome sequencing

Modesty and boastfulness – perception depends on usual performance

Do sweeteners increase your appetite? New evidence from randomised controlled trial says no 

Women with obesity do not need to gain weight during pregnancy, new study suggests

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

[Press-News.org] SwRI scientists study nitrogen provision for Pluto's atmosphere
What resupplies the nitrogen content as its atmosphere is depleted?