EL SEGUNDO HERALD December 7, 2017 Page 15
Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp
Recipe content provided by BPT - Serves 4
Ingredients
• 1 9-ounce package SeaPak Jumbo
Butterfly Shrimp
• 12 1-inch pieces of roasted red pepper
• 12 1-inch-by-4-inch strips of prosciutto
• 12 small basil leaves
Preparation
• Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking
sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• While shrimp is still frozen, place one
piece of roasted red pepper on the shrimp.
Wrap prosciutto strip around the pepper
and shrimp and place on the prepared
baking sheet (ends to the underside).
• Bake according to package directions
for 14 to 17 minutes or until shrimp is
cooked through. Serve hot and garnished
with basil leaves. •
Looking Up
“Laughter is brightest in the place where the food is.”
– Irish Proverb
Hydrocarbon Haze Keeps Dwarf Planet Colder than Expected
Based on a Press Release from UC
Santa Cruz, Provided by Bob Eklund
New analysis of Pluto’s atmosphere explains
why New Horizons spacecraft measured temperatures
much colder than predicted.
The gas composition of a planet’s atmosphere
generally determines how much heat
gets trapped in the atmosphere. For the dwarf
planet Pluto, however, the predicted temperature
based on the composition of its atmosphere was
much higher than actual measurements taken
by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015.
A new study published November 16 in
Nature proposes a novel cooling mechanism
controlled by haze particles to account for
Pluto’s frigid atmosphere.
“It’s been a mystery since we first got the
temperature data from New Horizons,” said
first author Xi Zhang, assistant professor of
Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa
Cruz. “Pluto is the first planetary body we
know of where the atmospheric energy budget
is dominated by solid-phase haze particles
instead of by gases.”
The cooling mechanism involves the absorption
of heat by the haze particles, which
then emit infrared radiation, cooling the
atmosphere by radiating energy into space.
The result is an atmospheric temperature of
about 70 Kelvin (minus 203 degrees Celsius,
or minus 333 degrees Fahrenheit), instead of
the predicted 100 Kelvin (minus 173 Celsius,
or minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to Zhang, the excess infrared
radiation from haze particles in Pluto’s atmosphere
should be detectable by the James
Webb Space Telescope, allowing confirmation
of his team’s hypothesis after the telescope’s
planned launch in 2019.
Extensive layers of atmospheric haze can
be seen in images of Pluto taken by New
Horizons. The haze results from chemical
reactions in the upper atmosphere, where
ultraviolet radiation from the Sun ionizes
nitrogen and methane, which react to form
tiny hydrocarbon particles tens of nanometers
in diameter. As these tiny particles sink down
through the atmosphere, they stick together
to form aggregates that grow larger as they
descend, eventually settling onto the surface.
“We believe these hydrocarbon particles are
related to the reddish and brownish stuff seen
in images of Pluto’s surface,” Zhang said.
The researchers are interested in studying
the effects of haze particles on the atmospheric
energy balance of other planetary
bodies, such as Neptune’s moon Triton and
Saturn’s moon Titan. Their findings may also
be relevant to investigations of exoplanets
with hazy atmospheres.
New Horizons passed within 7,800 miles of
Pluto, with this closest approach on July 14,
2015. New Horizons had a relative velocity
of 30,800 mph at its closest approach, and
came as close as 17,900 miles to Charon.
Starting 3.2 days before the closest approach,
long-range imaging included the mapping
of Pluto and Charon to 25 miles resolution.
Because of Pluto’s tilt, portions of the northern
hemisphere were in shadow at all times.
Meanwhile, instruments on board New
Horizons studied the atmosphere, both by emissions
of atmospheric molecules (airglow), and
by dimming of background stars as they pass
behind Pluto (occultation). During and after
closest approach, other instruments sampled
the planet’s high atmosphere and its effects on
the solar wind. They also searched for dust. A
communications dish on Earth measured the
disappearance and reappearance of the radio
signal as the probe flew by behind Pluto. The
results resolved Pluto’s diameter (by their timing)
and atmospheric density and composition
(by their weakening and strengthening pattern). •
Pluto’s haze layer is blue in this image taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera and computer generated
to replicate true color. Haze is produced by sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to small particles
that grow and settle toward the surface. (Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI).