Stern S A, Weintraub D A, Festou M C
Science. 1993 Sep 24;261(5129):1713-6. doi: 10.1126/science.261.5129.1713.
Thermal continuum emission from the Pluto-Charon system has been detected at wavelents of 800 and 1300 micrometers, and significant upper limits have been obtained at 450 and 1100 micrometers. After the subtraction of emission from Charon, the deduced surface temperature of much of Pluto is between 30 and 44 kein, probably near 35 to 37 kelvin. This range is significantly cooler than what radiative equilibrium models have suged and cooler than the surface temperature derived by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite. The low temperature indicates that methane cannot be present at the microbar pressure levels indicated by the 1988 stellar occultation measurements and that the methane features in Pluto's spectrum are from solid, not gas-phase, absorptions. This result is evidence that Pluto's atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen or carbon monoxide rather than methane.
在波长800微米和1300微米处探测到了冥王星 - 卡戎系统的热连续辐射，并且在450微米和1100微米处获得了显著的上限。在减去卡戎的辐射后，推断出冥王星大部分区域的表面温度在30到44开尔文之间，可能接近35到37开尔文。这个范围比辐射平衡模型所预测的要低得多，也比红外天文卫星得出的表面温度要低。低温表明，在1988年恒星掩星测量所显示的微巴压力水平下，甲烷不可能存在，冥王星光谱中的甲烷特征是由固态而非气相吸收造成的。这一结果证明，冥王星的大气主要由氮气或一氧化碳而非甲烷构成。
