Question

Pluto's atmosphere. As recently observed by the New Horizons mission, the surface pressure of Pluto is about 11 microbar. The surface temperature is about 37 K.

(a) What is the number density (in units of number per cubic centimeter) of molecules at Pluto's surface (Hint: use ideal gas law)? The radius of Pluto is about 1187 km and the surface gravity is about 0.62 m s. What is the total mass of the atmosphere in terms of Kg?

(b) Calculate the saturation vapor pressure (in units of Pa) of ethane at Pluto's surface. The saturated vapor pressure of ethane can be assumed as: log1o(P)-10.01-1085.0/(T-0.561). T is temperature in K and the vapor pressure (P) in units of millimeters of Hg (~133.32 Pa).

(c) If the volume mixing ratio of ethane on Pluto is about 1%, what is mass mixing ratio of ethane (assume the mean molecular weight is 28 g mol')? What is the partial pressure of ethane at the surface? (Hint: should you use volume mixing ratio or mass mixing ratio to calculate the partial pressure? Think about the physical meaning of gas pressure.) Finally, is ethane condensable at Pluto's surface)

Answer 1

a) The number density is 3.623 × 10⁻³
`(mol)/(m^(3) )`

The mass of the atmosphere is 1.3 × 10²²Kg

b) The pressure is 10⁻²⁰ Millimeter of mercury

c) The mass mixing ratio is 0.0107

The partial pressure of ethane is 0.01114 Pa

Yes it is condensable because it boiling point is -88.5 C which is equivalent to 184.5 K i.e is adding 273 to -88.5C and the temperature of the atmosphere is 37 K.

Step-by-step explanation:

The explanation is on the first and second uploaded image