Leslie A. Young
Southwest Research Institute
Department of Space Studies

Address: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St., Suite 300, Boulder CO 80302
FAX: (303) 546-9687 Phone: (303) 546-6057 E-Mail: layoung@boulder.swri.edu

Fun Stuff

A Pluto globe to assemble (pre-New Horizons): postscript file or gif file . (post-New Horizons) Link to Make: article

Useful Stuff

IDL routines: direct access to individual files or gzipped tar file .

Current Research

New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission. Jupiter's thermal structure and gravity-wave heating. Stellar occultations. Compositon of the atmospheres of Pluto and Triton. Triton monitoring

Some Publications

P. E. Johnson, L. A, Young, S. Protopapa, B. Schmitt, L. R. Gabasova, B. L. Lewis, J. A. Stanasberry, K. E. Mandt, O. L. White 2019. Modeling Pluto's minimum pressure: implications for haze production. Sumbitted to Icarus, 9-17-2019. Download pdf .

L. A. Young 2016. Volatile transport on inhomogeneous surfaces: II. Numerical calculations (VT3D). Resumbitted to Icarus, 07-08-2016. Download pdf . Supplementary files here (but you're better off just gettigng my whole IDL library).

W. M Grundy, C. B. Olkin, L. A. Young, and B. J. Holler 2013. Near-Infrared Spectral Monitoring of Pluto's Ices II: Recent Decline of CO and N2 Ice Absorptions. Sumbitted to Icarus, 11-04-2013. Download pdf .

C. B. Olkin, L. A. Young, D. Borncamp, A. Pickles, B. Sicardy, M. Assafin, F. B. Bianco, M. W. Buie, A. Dias de Oliveira, M. Gillon, R. G. French, A. Ramos Gomes Jr., E. Jehin, N. Morales, C. Opitom, J. L. Ortiz, A. Maury, M. Norbury, F. B. Ribas, R. Smith, L. H. Wasserman, E. F. Young, M. Zacharias, N. Zacharias Pluto's Atmosphere Does Not Collapse. Submitted to Icarus. Download pdf . Link to astro-ph .

Young, L. 2013. Pluto's Seasons: New Predictions for New Horizons. ApJL, 766, L22. Download pdf .

Young, L. 2012. Volatile transport on inhomogeneous surfaces: I. Analytic expressions, with application to Pluto's day. Icarus 221, 80-88. Download pdf .

Assafin. M., J. I. B. Camargo, R. Vieira Martins, A. H. Andrei, B. Sicardy, L. Young , D. N. da Silva Neto, F. Braga-Ribas 2009. “Precise predictions of stellar occultations by Pluto, Charon, Nix and Hydra for 2008-2015.” Submitted to Astron. & Astroph., 2009 Nov 17. Download pdf .

Young, E. F., L.A. Young, C.B.Olkin, K. Shoemaker, R.G. French, J. Regester, and M.W. Buie 2009. “Development and Performance of the PHOT (Portable High-Speed Occultation Telescope) Systems.” Resubmitted to PASP, 2011 Feb 14. Download pdf .

Buie, M. W., W. M. Grundy, E. F. Young, L. A. Young, S. A. Stern 2009. “Pluto and Charon with HST I: Monitoring Global Change and Improved Surface Properties from Lightcurves.” Submitted to Astronomical Journal, 2009 May 29. Download pdf .

Buie, M. W., W. M. Grundy, E. F. Young, L. A. Young, S. A. Stern 2009. “Pluto and Charon with HST II: Resolving Changes on Pluto's Surface and a Map for Charon.” Submitted to Astronomical Journal, 2009 May 29. Download pdf .

Grundy, W. M., L. A. Young, J. A. Stansberry, M. W. Buie, and E. F. Young 2009. “Near-Infrared Spectral Monitoring of Triton with IRTF/SpeX II: Spatial Distribution and Evolution of Ices.” Submitted to Icarus, 2009 May 11. Download pdf .

L.A. Young 2009. Rapid Computation of Occultation Lightcurves using Fourier Decomposition. Astronomical Journal 137, 3398-3403. Download pdf.

L.A. Young and 27 others, 2008. New Horizons: anticipated scientific investigations at the Pluto system. Space Science Reviews 140, 93-127. Download pdf.

E. F. Young and 13 others, 2008. Vertical structure in Pluto's atmosphere from the 2006 June 12 stellar ocultation. Astronomical Journal, 136, 1757-1769. Download pdf .

W.M. Grundy, L.A. Young, J.R. Spencer, R.E. Johnson, E.F. Young, and M.W. Buie, 2006. Distributions of H2O and CO2 ices on Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon from IRTF/SpeX observations. Submitted to Icarus. Download pdf .

Olkin, C. B., E. F. Young, L. A. Young, W. Grundy, B. Schmitt, A. Tokunaga, T. Owen, T. Roush and H. Terada 2006. Pluto's spectrum from 1.0 to 4.2 microm: implications for surface properties. Submitted to Astron. J. Download pdf .

A. J. Steffl, M. J. Mutchler, H. A. Weaver, S. A. Stern, D. D. Durda, D. Terrell, W. J. Merline, L. A. Young, E. F. Young, M. W. Buie, and J. R. Spencer 2006. New Constraints on Additional Satellites of the Pluto System. Submitted to A. J. . Download pdf .

Marc W. Buie, William M. Grundy, Eliot F. Young, Leslie A. Young, and S. Alan Stern 2006. Orbits and photometry of Pluto's satellites: Charon, S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, Astron. J. 132, 290-298. Download pdf .

Stern, S. A., Weaver, H. A., Steffl, A. J., Mutchler, M. J., Merline, W. J., Buie, M. W., Young, E. F., Young, L. A., Spencer, J. R. 2006. A giant impact origin for Pluto's small moons and satellite multiplicity in the Kuiper belt. Nature 439, 946-948. Download pdf .

Weaver, H. A., Stern, S. A., Mutchler, M. J., Steffl, A. J., Buie, M. W., Merline, W. J., Spencer, J. R., Young, E. F., Young, L. A. 2006. Discovery of two new satellites of Pluto. Nature 439, 943-945. Download pdf .

L. A. Young, R. V. Yelle, R. E. Young, A. Seiff, and D. B. Kirk 2005. “Gravity waves in Jupiter's stratosphere, as measured by the Galileo ASI experiment.” Icarus, 173, 185-199. Download pdf .

Grundy, W. M. and Young, L. A. 2004. “ Near-infrared spectral monitoring of Triton with IRTF/SpeX I: Establishing a baseline for rotational variability. ” Icarus, 172, 455-565. Download pdf .

J. Spencer, M. Buie, L. Young, Y. Guo, and A. Stern 2003. “ Finding KBO Flyby Targets for New Horizons ” Earth, Moon and Planets 92, 483-491 Download pdf .

Grundy, W. M., Young, L. A., and Young, E. F. 2003. “Discovery of CO2 ice and leading-trailing spectral asymmetry on the Uranian satellite Ariel.” Icarus 162, 222-229. Download pdf .

L. A. Young, A. S. Bosh, Marc Buie, J. L. Elliot, Larry Wasserman 2001. “Uranus after solstice: results from the 1998 November 6 occultation.” Icarus 153, 236-247. Download pdf .

L. A. Young, J. C. Cook, R. V. Yelle. and E. F. Young 2001. “Upper limits on gaseous CO at Pluto and Triton from high-resolution near-IR spectroscopy.” Icarus 153, 148-156. Download pdf

L. A. Young, S. A. Stern 2001. “UV Observations of Triton in 1999 with HST/STIS. 2150-3180 Angstrom Spectroscopy and Disk-Integrated Photometry.” Astronomical Journal, 122, 449-456. Download postscript or pdf

R. V. Yelle, C. A. Griffith, L. A. Young 2001. “Structure of the Jovian Stratospere at the Galileo probe entry site.” Icarus, 152, 331-346. Download PDF .

A. Seiff, D. B. Kirk, T. C. D. Knight, R. E. Young, J. D. Mihalov, L. A. Young, F. S. Milos, G. Schubert, R. C. Blanchard, and D. Atkinson 2998. “Thermal structure of Jupiter's atmosphere nera the edge of a 5-micron hot spot in the north equatorial belt.”. J. G. R. 103, 22,857-22,889. Download PDF

J. L. Elliot, M. J. Person, S. W. McDonald, M. W. Buie, E. W. Dunham, R. L. Millis, R. A. Nye, C. B. Olkin, L. H. Wasserman, L. A. Young, W. B. Hubbard, R. Hill, H. J. Reitsema, J. M. Pasachoff, T. H. McConnochie, B. A. Babcock, R. C. Stone, and P. Francis 2000. “The prediction and observation of the 1997 July 18 stellar occulation by Triton: More evidence for distortion and increasing pressure in Triton's atmosphere.” Icarus 148, 347-369.

L. A. Young, J. L. Elliot, A. Tokunaga, C. de Bergh, T. Owen 1997. “Detection of Gaseous Methane on Pluto.” Icarus 127, 258-262.

L. A. Young, R. V. Yelle, R. Young, A. Seiff, D. Kirk 1997. “Gravity Waves in Jupiter's thermosphere.” Science 276, 108-111. Download PDF

A. Seiff, D. B. Kirk, T. C. D. Knight, L. A. Young, F. S. Milos, E. Venkatapathy, J. D. Mihalov, R. C. Blanshard, R. E. Young, G. Schubert 1997. “Thermal Structure of Jupiter's Upper Atmosphere Derived from the Galileo Probe.” Science 276, 102-104.

R. V. Yelle, L. A. Young, R. J. Vervack, R. Young, L. Pfister, B. R. Sandel 1996. “Structure of Jupiter's upper atmosphere: Predictions for Galileo.” JGR 101, 2149-2161. Download pdf

Presentations

"Pluto: the next decade of discovery ", presented at the 2005 Division of Planetary Science Conference in Cambridge, England..

"Once and future Pluto: what we know now, what the puzzles are, and what we can learn from future observations and the Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission. ", presented at the Institute for Astronomy in Manoa, January 3, 2003.

Latex of abstract and PDF or PS of slides for "Triton's atmosphere in 1989: new lab data, new profiles," Leslie Young (SwRI), Glenn Stark (Wellesley) and Ron Vervack (JHU/APL). Presented at the 2002 Division of Planetary Science Conference in Burmingham, AL.

PS of poster for "Wavelet Analysis of Jovian Stratospheric Temperatures," Leslie Young (SwRI). Presented at the 2001 Division of Planetary Science Conference in New Orleans, LA.

Report from the workshop "Global Change on Triton", held during DPS 2000 meeting on Thursday, October 26, organized by Leslie Young (SwRI) and Mike Hicks (JPL).

External Links

General planetary: New England Planetary Science, Pluto: Eliot Young (SwRI; tour made when Eliot was at NASA Ames) , Marc Buie (SwRI), Fran Bagenal (Univ CO), Welcome to the Planets (JPL), The Nine Planets (Univ AZ), Views of the Solar System Relatives: Eliot Young, Rob Young, Telescopes: Lick, IRTF, Keck, Lowell


These routines are based upon work supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0098722.
Last updated Oct 2, 2019 by Leslie Young