Stellar Occultations with the 3.6-m DOT: Probing Planetary Atmospheres
Anandmayee Tej,
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, 695547, Kerala, India. Corresponding author: tej@iist.ac.in
Bruno Sicardy,
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
Nagarhalli Madhav Ashok,
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, 380009, Gujarat, India
Saurabh Sharma,
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital 263002, India
Abstract
The present paper (which is based on Sicardy et al. (2021)) discusses investigation of solar system bodies made possible by the simple yet powerful technique of stellar occultation. We focus on the stellar occultation by Pluto on 2020 June 6. The event was observed at Devasthal, Nainital, India in the I and H bands with the 1.3-m and 3.6-m telescopes, respectively. From the observed light curve, the surface pressure of Pluto’s atmosphere was constrained to psurf = 12.23−0.38+0.65 μbar. This indicates a continuing plateau phase since mid-2015 which is in excellent agreement with the prediction of Pluto volatile transport model of Meza et al. (2019). This result stresses the importance of coordinated stellar occultation observations with facilities like Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) and Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) where a few minutes of observing time lead to high-impact science.
Keywords : Stellar occultation, Pluto, Planetary atmosphere
To cite this article
Anandmayee Tej, Bruno Sicardy, Nagarhalli Madhav Ashok & Saurabh Sharma, «Stellar Occultations with the 3.6-m DOT: Probing Planetary Atmospheres», Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège [En ligne], Volume 93 - Année 2024, No 2 - Proceeedings of the 3rd BINA Workshop on the Scientific Potential of the Indo-Belgian Cooperation, 112-122 URL : https://popups.uliege.be/0037-9565/index.php?id=11617.
