{"id":5347,"date":"2015-07-26T06:27:21","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T06:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=5347"},"modified":"2015-07-26T06:27:21","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T06:27:21","slug":"nasas-new-horizons-team-finds-haze-flowing-ice-on-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/nasas-new-horizons-team-finds-haze-flowing-ice-on-pluto\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s New Horizons Team Finds Haze, Flowing Ice on Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Backlit<\/a>
Backlit by the sun, Pluto\u2019s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July
Credits: NASA\/JHUAPL\/SwRI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,\u201d said John Grunsfeld, NASA\u2019s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. \u201cWith flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto\u2019s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze — one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy jaw was on the ground when I saw this first image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuiper Belt,\u201d said Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cIt reminds us that exploration brings us more than just incredible discoveries — it brings incredible beauty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Studying Pluto\u2019s atmosphere provides clues as to what\u2019s happening below.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hazes detected in this image are a key element in creating the complex hydrocarbon compounds that give Pluto\u2019s surface its reddish hue,\u201d said Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Models suggest the hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up methane gas particles — a simple hydrocarbon in Pluto\u2019s atmosphere. The breakdown of methane triggers the buildup of more complex hydrocarbon gases, such as ethylene and acetylene, which also were discovered in Pluto\u2019s atmosphere by New Horizons. As these hydrocarbons fall to the lower, colder parts of the atmosphere, they condense into ice particles that create the hazes. Ultraviolent sunlight chemically converts hazes into tholins, the dark hydrocarbons that color Pluto\u2019s surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists previously had calculated temperatures would be too warm for hazes to form at altitudes higher than 20 miles (30 kilometers) above Pluto\u2019s surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to need some new ideas to figure out what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Summers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Horizons mission also found in LORRI images evidence of exotic ices flowing across Pluto\u2019s surface and revealing signs of recent geologic activity, something scientists hoped to find but didn\u2019t expect. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new images show fascinating details within the Texas-sized plain, informally named Sputnik Planum, which lies within the western half of Pluto\u2019s heart-shaped feature, known as Tombaugh Regio. There, a sheet of ice clearly appears to have flowed — and may still be flowing — in a manner similar to glaciers on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve only seen surfaces like this on active worlds like Earth and Mars,\u201d said mission co-investigator John Spencer of SwRI. \u201cI’m really smiling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, new compositional data from New Horizons\u2019 Ralph instrument indicate the center of Sputnik Planum is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt Pluto\u2019s temperatures of minus-390 degrees Fahrenheit, these ices can flow like a glacier,\u201d said Bill McKinnon, deputy leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team at Washington University in St. Louis. \u201cIn the southernmost region of the heart, adjacent to the dark equatorial region, it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain has been invaded by much newer icy deposits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders. \u201cWe knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",985,554,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",750,422,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",750,422,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",985,554,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",985,554,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",985,554,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",870,489,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",600,337,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",600,337,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",760,427,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",550,309,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",95,53,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",640,360,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",96,54,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew.jpg",150,84,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}