NASA says Pluto has blue skies, surface water iceOctober 9, 2015 - 10:30 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Move over Mars, NASA's just confirmed that Pluto not only has expansive fields of water ice on its surface but blue skies as well, Engadget reports. Granted Pluto has neither the thick atmosphere nor global oceans that the Earth does, so the "blue sky" NASA's New Horizon's team spotted last week is actually more of a haze. And, technically, the haze particles themselves would likely appear either red or grey to the naked eye. However, the fact that they appear blue from this distance tells NASA a lot. "That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles," said NASA's Carly Howett in a statement. "A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins." These tholins are likely generated high above Pluto's surface where solar radiation breaks down atmospheric nitrogen and methane into these smaller particles.
Equally intriguing is the discovery of surface water ice, which would also appear red to the naked eye. This is, again, due to the high concentrations of thorin particles covering much of the dwarf planet. "Large expanses of Pluto don't show exposed water ice," Jason Cook, of NASA's Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), said in a statement. “Because it's apparently masked by other, more volatile ices across most of the planet. Understanding why water appears exactly where it does, and not in other places, is a challenge that we are digging into.” Luckily, the New Horizon's spacecraft is still in tip-top shape, despite being some 3.1 billion miles from Earth. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Armenian, Azerbaijani heads of parliament meet in Switzerland President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Border residents overnight on highway to protest Armenia’s Residents of Kirants continue to express outrage over the government’s decision to cede land to Azerbaijan. Get Started: An educational platform for young startuppers The Get Started program which operates in two phases is an important platform for young startuppers. Byblos Bank Armenia celebrates Students' Day with scholarship recipients YSU students who received scholarships from Byblos Bank Armenia gathered in a casual setting to meet with the Bank's CEO, Hayk Stepanyan. |