A Radiolytic Origin of Red Organics at the Surface of the Arrokoth Trans-Neptunian Object

Eric Quirico (1) , Basile Augé (1) , Aurore Bacmann (1) , Cédric Wolters (1) , Véronique Vuitton (1) , Thomas Gautier (2) , Laurène Flandinet (1) , Thibault Launois (1) , Lora Jovanovic (2) , Philippe Boduch (3) , Hermann Rothard (4, 5, 6) , Léopold Desage (1) , Alexandre Faure (1) , Bernard Schmitt (1) , Olivier Poch (1) , William Grundy (7) , Silvia Protopapa (8) , Sonia Fornasier (9, 10) , John F. Cooper (11) , S. Alan Stern (8)

1 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
2 PLANETO - LATMOS
3 MADIR - Matériaux, Défauts et IRradiations
4 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
5 CIRIL - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Ions Lasers
6 GANIL - Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds
7 Lowell Observatory [Flagstaff]
8 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [Boulder]
9 LESIA (UMR_8109) - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
10 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
11 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

We report calculations and irradiation experiments that show that the red color of Arrokoth is the result of radiolytic processes by Galactic Cosmic Rays.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Eric Quirico, Basile Augé, Aurore Bacmann, Cédric Wolters, Véronique Vuitton, et al.. A Radiolytic Origin of Red Organics at the Surface of the Arrokoth Trans-Neptunian Object. 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Mar 2022, The Woodlands, Texas, United States. pp.LPI Contribution No. 2678. ⟨hal-03869217⟩