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The atmosphere of Pluto is the layer of gasses that surround the dwarf planet Pluto. It consists mainly of nitrogen (N 2 ), with minor amounts of methane (CH 4 ) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from surface ices on Pluto 's surface.
Maps produced from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), together with Pluto's light curve and the periodic variations in its infrared spectra, indicate that Pluto's surface is very varied, with large differences in both brightness and color, [11] with albedos between 0.49 and 0.66. [12]
The presence of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in Pluto's atmosphere creates a temperature inversion, with the average temperature of its atmosphere tens of degrees warmer than its surface, [142] though observations by New Horizons have revealed Pluto's upper atmosphere to be far colder than expected (70 K, as opposed to about 100 K). [137]
"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." Pluto is way cooler than it should be, and now we ...
Pluto's reign For decades, students learned the phrase "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" to remember the order of the planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars ...
Data from the New Horizons probe may explain how the red cap atop Pluto’s largest moon formed.
The reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon, [3] the largest of five moons of Pluto, is thought to be composed of tholins, produced from methane, nitrogen and related gases released from the atmosphere of Pluto and transferred over about 19,000 km (12,000 mi) distance to the orbiting moon. [34] [35] [36]
New Horizons has provided scientists with a new surprise: Pluto has a tail.