Pluto’s atmosphere ‘is much bigger than previously thought’
April 21st, 2011 - 7:06 pm ICT by ANIMelbourne, Apr 21 (ANI): Pluto’s atmosphere is much bigger than previously thought, according to a new study.
Recent observations of the dwarf planet have revealed that the icy orb’s atmosphere has expanded dramatically since 2000, and for the first time researchers have detected carbon monoxide.
The finding is also good news for NASA’s New Horizons mission, which is expected to arrive at the faraway outpost in a few years’ time.
Previously the atmosphere was known to be over 100 km thick.
But Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews and colleagues’ observations have pushed that out to more than 3,000 km- one quarter of the distance to Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, reports ABC Science.
“[Pluto's atmosphere] has a very low pressure, about a microbar [0.001 hectopascals], so expands very readily,” she said.
“In particular, fluctuations in the energy from the Sun during the solar cycle can make big changes to its size,” she added.
The researchers also detected carbon monoxide, an atmospheric coolant, which they say helps balance the warming effect of methane already know to exist in the dwarf planet’s atmosphere.
“The newly discovered carbon monoxide may hold the key to slowing loss of the atmosphere,” they said.
The study will appear in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. (ANI)
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Tags: abc science, carbon monoxide, coolant, energy from the sun, fluctuations, greaves, hectopascals, methane, microbar, monthly notices of the royal astronomical society, moon charon, nasa, new horizons, orb, outpost, pluto, royal astronomical society, solar cycle, time researchers, university of st andrews