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The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU69, a Cold Classical Kuiper Belt Object, a class of objects that have never been heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation. Here we describe initial results from these encounter observations. MU69 is a bi-lobed contact binary with a flattened shape, discrete geological units, and noticeable albedo heterogeneity. However, there is little surface color and compositional heterogeneity. No evidence for satellites, ring or dust structures, gas coma, or solar wind interactions was detected. By origin MU69 appears consistent with pebble cloud collapse followed by a low velocity merger of its two lobes., Comment: 43 pages, 8 figure

The Cold Classical Kuiper Belt, a class of small bodies in undisturbed orbits beyond Neptune, are primitive objects preserving information about Solar System formation. The New Horizons spacecraft flew past one of these objects, the 36 km long contact binary (486958) Arrokoth (2014 MU69), in January 2019. Images from the flyby show that Arrokoth has no detectable rings, and no satellites (larger than 180 meters diameter) within a radius of 8000 km, and has a lightly-cratered smooth surface with complex geological features, unlike those on previously visited Solar System bodies. The density of impact craters indicates the surface dates from the formation of the Solar System. The two lobes of the contact binary have closely aligned poles and equators, constraining their accretion mechanism.

The outer Solar System object (486958) Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU$_{69}$) has been largely undisturbed since its formation. We study its surface composition using data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft. Methanol ice is present along with organic material, which may have formed through radiation of simple molecules. Water ice was not detected. This composition indicates hydrogenation of carbon monoxide-rich ice and/ or energetic processing of methane condensed on water ice grains in the cold, outer edge of the early Solar System. There are only small regional variations in color and spectra across the surface, suggesting Arrokoth formed from a homogeneous or well-mixed reservoir of solids. Microwave thermal emission from the winter night side is consistent with a mean brightness temperature of 29$\pm$5 K., Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures

Pluto's atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto's icy bedrock and from the volatile ices that migrate via sublimation and condensation on seasonal timescales. This paper explores how a steady supply of atmospheric haze might affect three distinct provinces on Pluto. We pose the question of why they each look so different from one another if the same haze material is settling out onto all of them. Cthulhu is a more ancient region with comparatively little present-day geological activity, where the haze appears to simply accumulate over time. Sputnik Planitia is a very active region where glacial convection, as well as sublimation and condensation rapidly refresh the surface, hiding recently deposited haze from view. Lowell Regio is a region of intermediate age featuring very distinct coloration from the rest of Pluto. Using a simple model haze particle as a colorant, we are not able to match the colors in both Lowell Regio and Cthulhu. To account for their distinct colors, we propose that after arrival at Pluto's surface, haze particles may be less inert than might be supposed from the low surface temperatures. They must either interact with local materials and environments to produce distinct products in different regions, or else the supply of haze must be non-uniform in time and/or location, such that different products are delivered to different places.

Recent studies using the quantum information theoretic approach to thermodynamics show that the presence of coherence in quantum systems generates corrections to classical fluctuation theorems. To explicate the physical origins and implications of such corrections, we here convert an abstract framework of an autonomous quantum Crooks relation into quantum Crooks equalities for well-known coherent, squeezed and cat states. We further provide a proposal for a concrete experimental scenario to test these equalities. Our scheme consists of the autonomous evolution of a trapped ion and uses a position dependent AC Stark shift., Comment: Main Text: 13 pages, 7 figures; Supplementary material: 16 pages, 1 figure. Version 4: Published version (with minor formatting corrections)

We report the detection of a spectral signature observed at 682 cm$^{-1}$ by the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) in nadir and limb geometry observations of Titan's southern stratospheric polar region in the middle of southern fall, while stratospheric temperatures are the coldest since the beginning of the Cassini mission. The 682 cm$^{-1}$ signature, which is only observed below an altitude of 300-km, is at least partly attributed to the benzene (C$_6$H$_6$) ice $\nu_{4}$ C-H bending mode. While we first observed it in CIRS nadir spectra of the southern polar region in early 2013, we focus here on the study of nadir data acquired in May 2013, which have a more favorable observation geometry. We derived the C$_6$H$_6$ ice mass mixing ratio in 5{\deg}S latitude bins from the south pole to 65{\deg}S and infer the C$_6$H$_6$ cloud top altitude to be located deeper with increasing distance from the pole. We additionally analyzed limb data acquired in March 2015, which were the first limb dataset available after the May 2013 nadir observation, in order to infer a vertical profile of its mass mixing ratio in the 0.1 - 1 mbar region (250 - 170 km). We derive an upper limit of $\sim$1.5 $\mu$m for the equivalent radius of pure C$_6$H$_6$ ice particles from the shape of the observed emission band. Several other unidentified signatures are observed near 687 and 702 cm$^{-1}$ and possibly 695 cm$^{-1}$, which could also be due to ice spectral signatures as they are observed in the deep stratosphere at pressure levels similar to the C$_6$H$_6$ ice ones. We could not reproduce these signatures with pure nitrile ice (HCN, HC$_3$N,CH$_3$CN, C$_2$H$_5$CN and C$_2$N$_2$) spectra available in the literature except the 695 cm$^{-1}$ feature that could possibly be due to C$_2$H$_3$CN ice., Comment: accepted for publication in Icarus on 22 December 2017, in press

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) is a point spectrometer covering the spectral range of 0.4 to 4.3 microns (25,000-2300 cm-1). Its primary purpose is to map the surface composition of the asteroid Bennu, the target asteroid of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. The information it returns will help guide the selection of the sample site. It will also provide global context for the sample and high spatial resolution spectra that can be related to spatially unresolved terrestrial observations of asteroids. It is a compact, low-mass (17.8 kg), power efficient (8.8 W average), and robust instrument with the sensitivity needed to detect a 5% spectral absorption feature on a very dark surface (3% reflectance) in the inner solar system (0.89-1.35 AU). It, in combination with the other instruments on the OSIRIS-REx Mission, will provide an unprecedented view of an asteroid's surface., Comment: 14 figures, 3 tables, Space Science Reviews, submitted

Bayesian networks (BNs) are graphical models that are useful for representing high-dimensional probability distributions. There has been a great deal of interest in recent years in the NP-hard problem of learning the structure of a BN from observed data. Typically, one assigns a score to various structures and the search becomes an optimization problem that can be approached with either deterministic or stochastic methods. In this paper, we walk through the space of graphs by modeling the appearance and disappearance of edges as a birth and death process and compare our novel approach to the popular Metropolis-Hastings search strategy. We give empirical evidence that the birth and death process has superior mixing properties.

The New Horizons spacecraft mapped colors and infrared spectra across the encounter hemispheres of Pluto and Charon. The volatile ices CH$_4$, CO, and N$_2$, that dominate Pluto's surface, have complicated spatial distributions resulting from sublimation, condensation, and glacial flow acting over seasonal and geological timescales. Pluto's H$_2$O ice "bedrock" is also mapped, with isolated outcrops occurring in a variety of settings. Pluto's surface exhibits complex regional color diversity associated with its distinct provinces. Charon's color pattern is simpler, dominated by neutral low latitudes and a reddish northern polar region. Charon near infrared spectra reveal highly localized areas with strong NH$_3$ absorption tied to small craters with relatively fresh-appearing impact ejecta., Comment: in Science 351, aad9189 (2016)

The New Horizons mission has provided resolved measurements of Pluto's moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. All four are small, with equivalent spherical diameters of $\approx$40 km for Nix and Hydra and ~10 km for Styx and Kerberos. They are also highly elongated, with maximum to minimum axis ratios of $\approx$2. All four moons have high albedos ( $\approx$50-90 %) suggestive of a water-ice surface composition. Crater densities on Nix and Hydra imply surface ages $\gtrsim$ 4 Ga. The small moons rotate much faster than synchronous, with rotational poles clustered nearly orthogonal to the common pole directions of Pluto and Charon. These results reinforce the hypothesis that the small moons formed in the aftermath of a collision that produced the Pluto-Charon binary., Comment: in Science 351, aae0030 (2016)

We discuss two semi-independent calibration techniques used to determine the in-flight radiometric calibration for the New Horizons' Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The first calibration technique compares the observed stellar flux to modeled values. The difference between the two provides a calibration factor that allows the observed flux to be adjusted to the expected levels for all observations, for each detector. The second calibration technique is a channel-wise relative radiometric calibration for MVIC's blue, near-infrared and methane color channels using observations of Charon and scaling from the red channel stellar calibration. Both calibration techniques produce very similar results (better than 7% agreement), providing strong validation for the techniques used. Since the stellar calibration can be performed without a color target in the field of view and covers all of MVIC's detectors, this calibration was used to provide the radiometric keywords delivered by the New Horizons project to the Planetary Data System (PDS). These keywords allow each observation to be converted from counts to physical units; a description of how these keywords were generated is included. Finally, mitigation techniques adopted for the gain drift observed in the near-infrared detector and one of the panchromatic framing cameras is also discussed.

We report high-resolution observations at mid-infrared wavelengths of a minor solar flare, SOL2014-09-24T17T17:50 (C7.0), using Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) cameras at an auxiliary of the McMath-Pierce telescope. The flare emissions, the first simultaneous observations in two mid-infrared bands at $5\ \mu$m and $8\ \mu$m with white-light and hard X-ray coverage, revealed impulsive time variability with increases on time scales of $\sim 4$~s followed by exponential decay at $\sim$10 s in two bright regions separated by about 13$"$. The brightest source is compact, unresolved spatially at the diffraction limit ($1.3"$ at $5\ \mu$m). We identify the IR sources as flare ribbons also seen in white-light emission at 6173~\AA~observed by SDO/HMI, with twin hard X-ray sources observed by RHESSI, and with EUV sources (e.g., 94~\AA) observed by SDO/AIA. The two infrared points have closely the same flux density ($f_\nu$, W/m$^2$Hz) and extrapolate to a level about an order of magnitude below that observed in the visible band by HMI, but with a flux more than two orders of magnitude above the free-free continuum from the hot ($\sim$15 MK) coronal flare loop observed in the X-ray range. The observations suggest that the IR emission is optically thin, this constraint and others suggest major contributions from a density less than about $3 \times 10^{13}$~cm$^{-3}$. We tentatively interpret this emission mechanism as predominantly free-free emission in a highly ionized but cool and rather dense chromospheric region.

The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a water-ice crust, geologically young surface units, surface ice convection, wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow. Pluto's atmosphere is highly extended, with trace hydrocarbons, a global haze layer, and a surface pressure near 10 microbars. Pluto's diverse surface geology and long-term activity raise fundamental questions about how small planets remain active many billions of years after formation. Pluto's large moon Charon displays tectonics and evidence for a heterogeneous crustal composition, its north pole displays puzzling dark terrain. Small satellites Hydra and Nix have higher albedos than expected., Comment: 8 pages - Initial Science paper from NASA's New Horizons Pluto Encounter

"Particle methods" are sequential Monte Carlo algorithms, typically involving importance sampling, that are used to estimate and sample from joint and marginal densities from a collection of a, presumably increasing, number of random variables. In particular, a particle filter aims to estimate the current state $X_{n}$ of a stochastic system that is not directly observable by estimating a posterior distribution $\pi(x_{n}|y_{1},y_{2}, \ldots, y_{n})$ where the $\{Y_{n}\}$ are observations related to the $\{X_{n}\}$ through some measurement model $\pi(y_{n}|x_{n})$. A particle smoother aims to estimate a marginal distribution $\pi(x_{i}|y_{1},y_{2}, \ldots, y_{n})$ for $1 \leq i < n$. Particle methods are used extensively for hidden Markov models where $\{X_{n}\}$ is a Markov chain as well as for more general state space models. Existing particle filtering algorithms are extremely fast and easy to implement. Although they suffer from issues of degeneracy and "sample impoverishment", steps can be taken to minimize these problems and overall they are excellent tools for inference. However, if one wishes to sample from a posterior distribution of interest, a particle filter is only able to produce dependent draws. Particle smoothing algorithms are complicated and far less robust, often requiring cumbersome post-processing, "forward-backward" recursions, and multiple passes through subroutines. In this paper we introduce an alternative algorithm for both filtering and smoothing that is based on rejection sampling "in windows" . We compare both speed and accuracy of the traditional particle filter and this "windowed rejection sampler" (WRS) for several examples and show that good estimates for smoothing distributions are obtained at no extra cost.

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE), is the Herschel Space Observatory`s submillimetre camera and spectrometer. It contains a three-band imaging photometer operating at 250, 350 and 500 microns, and an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) which covers simultaneously its whole operating range of 194-671 microns (447-1550 GHz). The SPIRE detectors are arrays of feedhorn-coupled bolometers cooled to 0.3 K. The photometer has a field of view of 4' x 8', observed simultaneously in the three spectral bands. Its main operating mode is scan-mapping, whereby the field of view is scanned across the sky to achieve full spatial sampling and to cover large areas if desired. The spectrometer has an approximately circular field of view with a diameter of 2.6'. The spectral resolution can be adjusted between 1.2 and 25 GHz by changing the stroke length of the FTS scan mirror. Its main operating mode involves a fixed telescope pointing with multiple scans of the FTS mirror to acquire spectral data. For extended source measurements, multiple position offsets are implemented by means of an internal beam steering mirror to achieve the desired spatial sampling and by rastering of the telescope pointing to map areas larger than the field of view. The SPIRE instrument consists of a cold focal plane unit located inside the Herschel cryostat and warm electronics units, located on the spacecraft Service Module, for instrument control and data handling. Science data are transmitted to Earth with no on-board data compression, and processed by automatic pipelines to produce calibrated science products. The in-flight performance of the instrument matches or exceeds predictions based on pre-launch testing and modelling: the photometer sensitivity is comparable to or slightly better than estimated pre-launch, and the spectrometer sensitivity is also better by a factor of 1.5-2., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophyics (Herschel first results special issue)

In this paper we select large spectral averages of data from the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) obtained in limb-viewing mode at low latitudes (30S--30N), greatly increasing the path length and hence signal-to-noise ratio for optically thin trace species such as propane. By modeling and subtracting the emissions of other gas species, we demonstrate that at least six infrared bands of propane are detected by CIRS, including two not previously identified in Titan spectra. Using a new line list for the range 1300-1400cm -1, along with an existing GEISA list, we retrieve propane abundances from two bands at 748 and 1376 cm-1. At 748 cm-1 we retrieve 4.2 +/- 0.5 x 10(-7) (1-sigma error) at 2 mbar, in good agreement with previous studies, although lack of hotbands in the present spectral atlas remains a problem. We also determine 5.7 +/- 0.8 x 10(-7) at 2 mbar from the 1376 cm-1 band - a value that is probably affected by systematic errors including continuum gradients due to haze and also an imperfect model of the n6 band of ethane. This study clearly shows for the first time the ubiquity of propane's emission bands across the thermal infrared spectrum of Titan, and points to an urgent need for further laboratory spectroscopy work, both to provide the line positions and intensities needed to model these bands, and also to further characterize haze spectral opacity. The present lack of accurate modeling capability for propane is an impediment not only for the measurement of propane itself, but also for the search for the emissions of new molecules in many spectral regions., Comment: 7 Figures, 3 Tables. Typeset in Latex with elsart.cls. In press for Planetary and Space Science

In this paper we report new results concerning the seasonal atmospheric evolution near Titan's poles and equator using the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). In previous papers (Coustenis et al. 2016 and 2018), after the 2010 equinox, we have monitored Titan's stratosphere since the beginning of the mission and reported recently on the observed strong temperature decrease and compositional enhancement above Titan's southern polar latitudes since 2012 of several trace species such as complex hydrocarbons and nitriles, which were previously observed only at high northern latitudes. This effect followed the transition of Titan's seasons from northern winter in 2002 to northern summer in 2017, while at that latter time, the southern hemisphere was entering winter. From 2013 until 2016, the northern polar region has shown a temperature increase of 10 K, while the south has shown a more significant decrease (up to 25 K) in a similar period of time. The stratosphere over the south pole of Titan shows a change in shape with a steeper positive slope and an increase in temperature in 2017 with respect to 2014, by 10-50 K in the 0.5 mbar-0.05 mbar pressure range, the larger 2017 temperatures observed in the higher atmospheric levels around 0.05 mbar, while in average the 70°S values return closer to the warmer ones found in 2012. While the south polar region is continuously enhanced since 2012, the chemical content in the north is showing a clear depletion for all molecules only since 2015 (Coustenis et al., 2018). We present here a complementary analysis of nadir spectra acquired by Cassini/CIRS at high resolution during the last year of the Cassini mission in 2017 and describe the temperature and composition variations near Titan's poles and at the equator over almost two Titan seasons. The 2017 data we have acquired and analyzed here are important because they are the only nadir ones afforded since 2014 close to the south pole at high resolution. They show no significant changes in the north with respect to 2016, but a large temperature increase in the southern polar stratosphere and a change in the temperature profiles shape while the South is also finally showing a related significant decrease in most of the abundances.

By the close of the Cassini mission in 2017 the Composite Infrared Spectrometer had recorded surface brightnesstemperatures on Titan for 13 yr (almost half a Titan year). We mapped temperatures in latitude from pole to pole inseven time segments from northern mid-winter to northern summer solstice. At the beginning of the mission thewarmest temperatures were centered at 13 S where they peaked at 93.9 K. Temperatures fell off by about 4 Ktoward the north pole and 2 K toward the south pole. As the seasons progressed the warmest temperatures shiftednorthward, tracking the subsolar point, and at northern summer solstice were centered at 24 N. While moving norththe peak temperature decreased by about 1 K, reaching 92.8 K at solstice. At solstice the fall-off toward the northand south poles were 1 K and 3 K, respectively. Thus the temperature range was the same 2 K at the two poles. Ourobserved surface temperatures agree with recent general circulation model results that take account of methanehydrology and imply that hemispherical differences in Titan's topography may play a role in the north?southasymmetry on Titan.

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) is a point spectrometer covering the spectral range of 0.4 to 4.3 microns (25,000-2300 cm−1). Its primary purpose is to map the surface composition of the asteroid Bennu, the target asteroid of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. The information it returns will help guide the selection of the sample site. It will also provide global context for the sample and high spatial resolution spectra that can be related to spatially unresolved terrestrial observations of asteroids. It is a compact, low-mass (17.8 kg), power efficient (8.8 W average), and robust instrument with the sensitivity needed to detect a 5% spectral absorption feature on a very dark surface (3% reflectance) in the inner solar system (0.89-1.35 AU). It, in combination with the other instruments on the OSIRIS-REx Mission, will provide an unprecedented view of an asteroid's surface.

A Net Flux Radiometer (NFR) is presented that can be included in an atmospheric structure instrument suite for future probe missions to the icy giants Uranus and Neptune. The baseline design has two spectral channels i.e., a solar channel (0.4-to-3.5 m) and a thermal channel (4-to-300 m). The NFR is capable of viewing five distinct viewing angles during the descent. Non-imaging Winston cones with band-pass filters are used for each spectral channel and to define a 5 angular acceptance. Uncooled thermopile detectors are used in each spectral channel and are read out using a custom radiation hard application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The baseline design can easily be changed to increase the number of detector channels from two to seven.

SnowEx is a winter airborne and field campaign designed to measure snow-water equivalent in forested landscapes. A major focus of Year 1 (2016-17) of NASA's SnowEx campaign will be an extensive field program involving dozens of participants from U.S. government agencies and from many universities and institutions, both domestic and foreign. Along with other instruments, two infrared (IR) sensors will be flown on a Naval Research Laboratory P-3 aircraft. Surface temperature is a critical input to hydrologic models and will be measured during the SnowEx mission. A Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) IR imaging camera system will be flown along with a KT-15 remote thermometer to aid in the calibration of the IR image data. Together, these instruments will measure surface temperature of snow and ice targets to an expected accuracy of less than 1C.