P037
The Kuiper Belt Captain’s Tale: NASA’s New Horizons Explores the Pluto System, 2014 MU69 (“Ultima Thule”), and Beyond

Session ID#: 83603

Session Description:
New Horizons, outbound from its successful encounter with Pluto, Charon, and four smaller moons, reached Kuiper belt object (486958) 2014 MU69 on 1 Jan 2019. Just as Pluto was found to be remarkably geologically active for a small, cold, distant planet, 2014 MU69 proved to be, in its own way, a revelation. Formed of two contrasting lobes, apparently gently merged in the earliest days of the Solar System, “Ultima Thule” is providing detailed insights into the conditions and processes of planetesimal formation. This session encourages submissions on analysis and modeling of Pluto system data from the 2015 encounter, presentation of new data from the Ultima Thule encounter, along with emerging understanding of planetesimal formation and evolution. Submissions are also encouraged on Kuiper belt science generally, including Earth-based observations, theoretical modeling, New Horizons observations of other KBOs and the heliosphere, and plans for future exploration of the Solar System’s 3rd zone.
Index Terms:

5455 Origin and evolution [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
6040 Origin and evolution [PLANETARY SCIENCES: COMETS AND SMALL BODIES]
6224 Kuiper belt objects [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
6270 Pluto and satellites [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]

Primary Convener:  Jeffrey M Moore, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
Conveners:  Harold A Weaver Jr, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States and Cristina Dalle Ore, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States
Primary Liaison:  Harold A Weaver Jr, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States
 
The Geology and Formation of the Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 (Invited) (495292)
Oliver L White1, Jeffrey M Moore2, William B McKinnon3, S Alan Stern4, Harold A Weaver Jr5, Catherine Olkin6, John R Spencer7, Joel Wm. Parker6, Anne Verbiscer8, William M Grundy9 and The New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Science Theme Team, (1)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (2)NASA, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (3)Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (9)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
 
Pluto and Charon’s Topographic Variance Spectra from Limb Profiles (508391)
Jack William Conrad1, Francis Nimmo2, Ross A Beyer3, Paul Schenk4, Carver Jay Bierson1, Jeffrey Moore5 and New Horizons GGI Team, (1)University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (2)University of California-Santa Cruz, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (3)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (4)Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States, (5)NASA Ames Res. Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
 
Geophysics at the Edge of the Solar System: New Horizons at (486958) 2014 MU69 (508679)
James Tuttle Keane1, Orkan M Umurhan2, Simon Porter3, Ross A Beyer4, William B McKinnon5, Jeffrey M Moore6, John R Spencer7, Douglas P Hamilton8, Carver Jay Bierson9, Anne Verbiscer10, Joel Wm Parker7, Catherine Olkin11, Harold A Weaver Jr12, S Alan Stern13 and the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics, and Imaging (GGI) Team, (1)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (4)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (5)Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States, (6)NASA, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (7)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (9)University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (10)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (11)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (12)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (13)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States
 
The Shapes of (486958) 2014 MU69 and 14 Other Kuiper Belt Objects from New Horizons (517284)
Simon Porter1, Ross A Beyer2, Carver Jay Bierson3, Paul Schenk4, Mark Showalter5, Marc W Buie6, Anne Verbiscer7, John R Spencer6, Susan Benecchi8, Amanda Marie Zangari9, Alex Harrison Parker1, William B McKinnon10, Harold A Weaver Jr11, Joel Wm Parker6, Kelsi N Singer6, Catherine Olkin1, S Alan Stern12 and The New Horizons Geology, Geophysics, and Imaging (GGI) Team, (1)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (3)University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (4)Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States, (5)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (6)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (8)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States, (9)Unaffiliated, Lexington, MA, United States, (10)Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States, (11)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (12)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States
 
Can the Sublimation of Dry Ice Explain the Flattened, Bilobate Structure and Spin Rate of 2014 MU69 (535774)
Andrew J Prentice, Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
 
Methanol Near-Infrared Bands as a Probe of Irradiated Ices in Space (536530)
Riccardo Giovanni Urso1, Donia Baklouti1, Zahia Djouadi1 and Rosario Brunetto2, (1)IAS Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay Cedex, France, (2)IAS, Orsay, France
 
On the Stability & Origin of MU69’s and Pluto’s Ices (546468)
Carey Michael Lisse1, Leslie Ann Young2, Dale P Cruikshank3, Scott A. Sandford4, Alan Stern5, Harold A Weaver Jr6, Orkan M Umurhan7, Yvonne J Pendleton8, James Tuttle Keane9, Randy Gladstone10, Joel Wm. Parker2, Richard P Binzel11, Alissa M Earle12, Mihaly Horanyi13, M. Ramy Elmaarry14, Andrew F. Cheng1, Ralph L McNutt Jr15, Jeffery Moore16, William M Grundy17, Bernard Schmitt18, J.J. Kavelaars19, Ivan Linscott20, Daniel Turner Britt21, John R Spencer22, Catherine Olkin2, Heather Alison Elliott5 and the New Horizons Science Team, (1)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)NASA, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (4)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (5)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (6)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (8)NASA Lunar Science Institute, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (9)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (10)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (11)MIT Rm 54-410, Cambridge, MA, United States, (12)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States, (13)University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (14)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (15)Johns Hopkins Univ/APL, Laurel, MD, United States, (16)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States, (17)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (18)Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble (LPG), Grenoble, France, (19)National Research Council of Canada, NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada, (20)Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, (21)University of Central Florida, Physics, Orlando, FL, United States, (22)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States
 
The Response of Varying Particle Density and Incidence Angle on Polyvinylidene Fluoride Dust Detectors (558344)
Marcus Ryan Piquette, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, David James, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, Mihaly Horanyi, University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Physics, Boulder, CO, United States and NH/SDC Team
 
We present results on the collision probability and dust production in the Kuiper belt for the past 10^7 years. We then compare the results to dust measurements conducted by the Student Dust Counter SDC, aboard of the "New Horizons" spacecraft. From this modelling we are able to constrain some impact "scaling law" parameters for comet-like bodies. (559417)
Abedin Y. Abedin, Victoria, BC, Canada and J.J. Kavelaars, National Research Council of Canada, NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada
 
Impact craters on 2014 MU69: Implications for Kuiper belt object size-frequency distributions and planetesimal formation (560635)
Kelsi N Singer1, John R Spencer2, William B McKinnon3, Alan Stern4, Sarah Greenstreet5, Brett Gladman6, Stuart J Robbins2, Kirby Runyon7, Paul Schenk8, J.J. Kavelaars9, Tod Lauer10, Alex H Parker11, Harold A Weaver Jr12, Catherine Olkin1, Jeffery Moore13, Joel Wm Parker2, Anne Verbiscer14 and William M Grundy15, (1)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (5)B612 Foundation, Planetary Society, Mill Valley, United States, (6)University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, (7)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (8)Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, United States, (9)National Research Council of Canada, NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada, (10)National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, United States, (11)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (12)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (13)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States, (14)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (15)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
 
Surface compositions and colors of Pluto, its system of moons, and 2014 MU69 (Invited) (561266)
Silvia Protopapa1, William M Grundy2, Dale P Cruikshank3, Dennis Reuter4, Catherine Olkin5, Kimberly Ennico Smith6, Joel Wm Parker7, Kelsi N Singer7, John R Spencer7, S Alan Stern8, Anne Verbiscer9, Harold A Weaver Jr10 and the New Horizons Team, (1)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (2)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (3)NASA, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (4)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (7)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (9)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (10)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States
 
Photometric Properties of Dwarf Planets and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Determined from New Horizons (569614)
Anne Verbiscer1, Simon Porter2, Susan Benecchi3, J.J. Kavelaars4, Harold A Weaver Jr5, John R Spencer6, Marc W Buie6, Bonnie J Buratti7, Paul Helfenstein8, Alex H Parker2, Catherine Olkin9, Joel Wm Parker6, S Alan Stern10, Leslie Ann Young9, Kimberly Ennico Smith11, Kelsi N Singer6 and The New Horizons Science Team, (1)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (3)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States, (4)National Research Council of Canada, NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada, (5)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (8)Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States, (9)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (11)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
 
Results from a stellar occultation by KBO Varda (572306)
Karsten Schindler1,2, Amanda S. Bosh3, Stephen E Levine4, Michael J Person3, Jürgen Wolf1,2, Carlos Zuluaga3, Alfred Krabbe1 and Varda Occultation Observation Team, (1)Universität Stuttgart, Deutsches SOFIA Institut, Stuttgart, Germany, (2)SOFIA Science Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (3)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States
 
Formation of cellular structures on Sputnik Planitia from convection (593693)
Ulrich Hansen1, Teresa Wong1, Thomas Wiesehöfer1 and William B McKinnon2, (1)University of Münster, Institute for Geophysics, Münster, Germany, (2)Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States
 
A Statistical Test for the Population of Contact Binaries in the Kuiper Belt (598926)
Mark Showalter1, Susan Benecchi2, Marc W Buie3, William M Grundy4, James Tuttle Keane5, Carey Michael Lisse6, Catherine Olkin7, Simon Porter7, Stuart J Robbins3, Kelsi N Singer3, Anne Verbiscer8, Harold A Weaver Jr9, Amanda Marie Zangari10, Douglas P Hamilton11, David E. Kaufmann7, Tod Lauer12, Douglas S. Mehoke13, Thomas S. Mehoke13, John R Spencer3, Henry Throop14, Joel Wm Parker3, S Alan Stern15 and The New Horizons Geology, Geophysics, and Imaging (GGI) Team, (1)SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, (2)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (5)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (6)JHU-APL, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)University of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (9)The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, (10)Unaffiliated, Lexington, MA, United States, (11)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (12)National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, United States, (13)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (14)Planetary Science Institute Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM, United States, (15)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States
 
How Seasonal Methane Snow Forms on Pluto on Mountain's Tops, Crater Rims and Slopes (601295)
Tanguy Bertrand, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States and Francois Forget, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique UPMC, Paris, France
 
A collisional formation model of 2014 MU69 “Ultima Thule” (602719)
Elijah Marshall Priwer, West Ranch High School, Stevenson Ranch, CA, United States and David J Stevenson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
 
Update on High Resolution Searches for KBO Binaries using New Horizons LORRI (610399)
Harold A Weaver Jr1, S. B. Porter2, John R Spencer3, S Alan Stern4, Anne Verbiscer5, Susan Benecchi6, R P Binzel7, Marc W Buie3, Bonnie J Buratti8, Andrew F. Cheng1, Dale P Cruikshank9, William M Grundy10, J.J. Kavelaars11, Tod Lauer12, Carey Michael Lisse13, Jeffery Moore14, Catherine Olkin2, Alex H Parker15, J. Wm. Parker2, Leslie Ann Young2, Amanda Marie Zangari16 and New Horizons Science Team, (1)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (6)Planetary Science Institute Tucson, Tucson, AZ, United States, (7)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States, (8)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (9)NASA, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (10)Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (11)National Research Council of Canada, NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada, (12)National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, United States, (13)JHU-APL, Laurel, MD, United States, (14)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States, (15)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, United States, (16)Unaffiliated, Lexington, MA, United States
 
Spindown of 2014 MU69 (“Ultima Thule”) by impact of small, cold classical Kuiper belt objects (610977)
Xiaochen Mao, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States, William B McKinnon, Washington Univ, Saint Louis, MO, United States, James Tuttle Keane, California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, John R Spencer, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, Catherine Olkin, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Harold A Weaver Jr, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, S Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States and The New Horizons Geology and Geophysics Theme Team
 
Global Structure and Time Variation of Pluto's Plasma Wake (616496)
Nathan Paul Barnes and Peter A Delamere, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States
 
On the solar nebula origin of (486958) 2014 MU69, a primordial contact binary in the Kuiper belt (624813)
William B McKinnon, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States, William M Grundy, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, Douglas Hamilton, University of Maryland, College Park, United States, Orkan M Umurhan, SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, James Tuttle Keane, California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, John R Spencer, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, Catherine Olkin, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Harold A Weaver Jr, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD, United States, S Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO, United States and The New Horizons Science Team
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