Visions into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 A Midterm Review (2018) / Chapter Skim
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2 Recent Scientific Discoveries
2 Recent Scientific Discoveries
Pages 24-52
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. This chapter is not intended to be comprehensive, and there are many other worthy scientific discoveries of the past few years.
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The interaction of the planetary field with the solar wind induces a response in the core that generates an external magnetic field of magnitude similar to or larger than the planetary field (Anderson et al., 2012, 2014; Johnson et al., 2012; Winslow et al., 2014) and modifies the global scale of the magnetosphere (Jia et al., 2015)
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. Although water is not stable on the surface today, Venus Express data showed that Venus continues to lose significant amounts of water via erosion from the upper atmosphere by solar wind stripping (Curry et al., 2015)
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Futaguchi, et al., Topographical and local time dependence of large stationary gravity waves observed at the cloud top of Venus, Geophysical Research Letters 44(24) :12098-12105, ©2017 American Geophysical Union.
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. A more complete understanding of atmospheric dynamics from modeling the gravity waves may provide constraints on the coupling of atmospheric and interior dynamics.
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, and mass anomalies on a new and increasingly precise level of spatial resolution, including the identification in the gravity gradient map of the circumProcellarum fracture network (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2014) , are important for lunar geology, including models of
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interior dynamics and volcanic processes. GRAIL and LRO results yield definitive definition of the lunar inventory of impact basins (Neumann et al., 2015)
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on the LADEE spacecraft recorded over 11,000 unambiguous dust impacts during its mission at the Moon that lasted from October 2013 until April 2014. These findings confirm that there is a dust cloud surrounding the Moon, which is sustained by the continual bombardment of interplanetary dust particles.
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program included flight missions (LRO after the Human Exploration Office mission concluded, LADEE, International Lunar Network) , instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, and research and analysis efforts for crosscutting lunar and exploration research (Lunar Advanced Science and Exploration Research; Lunar Mapping and Modeling Project)
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. MAVEN measurements support stripping of enough martian atmosphere by solar wind to remove ~500 millibars of CO2 in 4 byr, mostly during the 300-500 Ma after the magnetic field shut down (Jakosky et al., 2015,
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Meslin, K.A. Farley, et al., the MSL Science Team, 2015, Mars methane detection and variability at Gale crater, Science 347(6220)
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JUPITER Juno arrived in Jupiter orbit on July 5, 2016, and results from the mission are already leading to a new understanding of the planet's workings and interior. Among the new discoveries are a deeply penetrating ammonia-based weather system and a stronger and more irregular magnetic field than previously thought (Bolton et al., 2017)
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The Jovian magnetic field contains patches of low and high magnetic field flux that are not yet fully characterized because of their limited spatial extent. Jupiter's dynamo extends out to as much as 90 percent of the radius (Bolton et al., 2017)
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at different locations around Titan's eccentric orbit demonstrated deformations in Titan's interior on the time scale of its orbital period large enough to require a water-rich ocean under an ice shell. Further analysis of gravity data indicated that Titan's ice shell is variable in thickness, with an average thickness of ~70 km, and that the ocean contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (Mitri et al., 2014)
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The rotation of Saturn's interior is still undetermined because the internal part of the magnetic field exhibits no longitudinal structure. The gravity field shows clear evidence of strong differential rotation in the outer 10-15 percent of Saturn's radius.
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The computation incorporated the effects of ionization of the neutral molecules by energetic electrons, revealing how such a structure would affect the magnetic field and the electron density near the plume. The results not only accounted for the previously puzzling changes of the measured magnetic field but also explained an extremely brief emission in the plasma wave spectrum that implied a significant increase of electron density coincident with the magnetic field anomaly.
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PLUTO AND CHARON The New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto in July 2015. (See Figure 2.14.)
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. The "bedrock" of Pluto is thought to be water ice, which has been detected on the surface (Protopapa et al., 2017)
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," September 5, 2016, http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/ Space_Science/Rosetta/Philae_found; main image and lander inset credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/ LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; context: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam -- CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. EXOPLANETS No summary of recent developments in planetary science would be complete without a mention of the remarkable explosion in discoveries of exoplanets since the last decadal survey.
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CONCLUSION This chapter has provided only a brief overview of the tremendous scientific discoveries made since the Vision and Voyages report was released in March 2011. New discoveries have been made from the core to the magnetospheres of all classes of objects in our solar system.
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44 VISIONS INTO VOYAGES FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE IN THE DECADE 2013-2022 FIGURE 2.15 Perspective view of Pluto's highest mountains, Tenzing Montes, along the western margins of Sputnik Planitia, which rise 3-6 km above the smooth nitrogen-ice plains in the foreground. The mounded area behind the mountains at upper left is the Wright Mons edifice interpreted to a volcanic feature composed of ices.
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FIGURE 2.18 Images of crust fracturing on Charon, suggesting that it might have once had a subsurface ocean which froze and expanded, stretching the surface. SOURCE: NASA, "Pluto's ‘Hulk-like' Moon Charon: A Possible Ancient Ocean?
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Geophysical Research Letters 42(16)
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 118:997-1008. Dougherty, M.K., K.K.
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Geophysical Research Letters 37(16)
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Geophysical Research Letters 44(11)
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Geophysical Research Letters 44(10)
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 119(10)
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Geophysical Research Letters 40:4549-4554. Zolotov, M.Y., and M.V.
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