Pluto continues to amaze astronomers

The foggy halo around Pluto is visible in the photo. This is his atmosphere. The image was taken on July 15 by the New Horizons probe, at a distance of 2 million kilometers from Pluto (NASA).

New Horizons hit the whole world with a large number of detailed images of Pluto and its satellites. After studying these images, scientists concluded that the planetoid is not a dead, frozen world at all. There are relatively young mountains of ice. There are places where glaciers move (although all this, of course, is very different from the corresponding objects and phenomena on Earth).

In addition, it became clear that Pluto has an atmosphere. Thin and almost transparent, but still there. Scientists believe that if a person were on the surface of Pluto and looked up, then no atmosphere, most likely, he would not have seen. The atmosphere of Pluto is represented by the subtlest haze, which, however, was recorded by the probe. Despite its ephemerality, the atmosphere is divided into layers, which are also clearly visible, especially at an altitude of 50 and 80 km above the surface of a dwarf planet.

So far, experts do not understand why the atmosphere of Pluto is divided into such layers. Maybe the reason is in the winds, or more complex atmospheric phenomena. There is also the possibility that the layers demonstrate different types of chemical reactions taking place in the atmosphere of Pluto at different heights.


The layers are clearly visible in the image, especially at an altitude of 50 and 80 km above the surface.

Experts use two methods to study the properties of the atmosphere. The first is based on tracking the passage of a star with a known brightness behind Pluto, with an estimate of the absorption / scattering of the star’s light by the planetoid’s atmosphere. As a result, scientists can calculate the density of the atmosphere and its mass. This method was first used about two years ago (generally speaking, that Pluto has an atmosphere has been known since the 80s of the last century).

The second method is based on transmitting radio emission through Pluto, with a further estimate of the signal transmitted through the dwarf planet by the New Horizon probe. Using this method, it turned out that the mass of Pluto’s atmosphere is two times less than the previous measurements showed (which were quite accurate, there could be no double error). Thus, the mass of the atmosphere decreased by half over a period of time of about a quarter century.

If the current measurements are correct, this does not mean that part of Pluto’s atmosphere went into outer space. The fact is that Pluto’s orbit is in the form of an ellipse, and now the dwarf planet is much further from the Sun than in the 80s of the last century. Part of the atmosphere could simply freeze, settling on the surface of Pluto. This process will continue until the year 2113 - then Pluto will be even further from the Sun than now.



But even more surprising is the fact that the ice on the surface of Pluto is moving. Such a movement was seen in the region in the shape of a heart. The composition of the ice is nitrogen, methane, CO, the main components of glaciers on Pluto.

The data obtained by scientists have largely changed the point of view of astronomers on the processes occurring on a dwarf planet. This is not a dead world at all - the processes that are slowly changing the surface of Pluto continue to work here. In particular, the ice moves, which may be evidence of the theory of the existence of a liquid ocean under the ice cover of Pluto.

The existence of moving glaciers makes Pluto look like active worlds like Earth or Mars. In addition, scientists have received evidence of the existence of complex organic compounds on Pluto. These are acetylene, ethylene and other substances. New Horizons has already detected traces of the presence of these compounds.

It is also interesting that dark ice (mountains) is much older than light areas, and has billions of years. Scientists compare the movement of ice on Pluto with the vertical movement of glaciers on Earth - the behavior of ice is very similar, despite the fact that on Earth ice is frozen water, and on Pluto - frozen gases.

As you can see, Pluto is a very interesting planet, albeit a dwarf one. Probably, the planetoid will give scientists more surprises.