Transient atmospheres on Charon and water–ice covered KBOs resulting from comet impacts

Abstract

Evidence from stellar occultation datasets and Charon’s H2O–ice dominated surface composition has long suggested a lack of any current atmosphere around this satellite planet. However, impacts from both Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comets must from time to time import N2, CH4, and other cometary super-volatiles that can create temporary atmospheres around Charon. Here we estimate the frequency of such cometary impacts on Charon and the imported mass of super-volatiles from each such impact. We then examine the characteristics of such transient atmospheric events, including their column densities, mean molecular weights, scale heights, and loss timescales. We then report on the detectability of such a transient atmosphere by New Horizons, and discuss the generalized case of cometary impact-created transient atmospheres on other satellites of Pluto and water–ice covered KBOs across the Kuiper Belt.