Pluto Atmosphere

NASA's New Horizons mission data along with novel laboratory experiments and exospheric modelling has helped scientists to reveal the likely composition of the red cap on Pluto's moon Charon and how it may have formed. The team realistically replicated Charon surface conditions to measure the composition and colour of hydrocarbons produced on Charo...

The study was carried out by an international team of scientists, and included members from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences.

Pluto's heart-shaped structure, named Tombaugh Regio, quickly became famous after NASA's New Horizons mission captured footage of the dwarf planet in 2015 and revealed it is not the barren world scientists thought it was.

Pluto is covered with surprising dunes made of methane ice, which have formed relatively recently despite the frigid dwarf planet's very thin atmosphere, international researchers said Thursday.

The reddish polar region on Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is an effect of methane gas escaping from the icy dwarf planet's atmosphere, say scientists who solved the mystery behind the coloured region first spotted by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft last year.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back a stunning image of Pluto, showing sunlight filtering through and illuminating the icy dwarf planet's complex atmospheric haze layers.

The methane ice-rich surface on Pluto may be sublimating away into the atmosphere, exposing a layer of water-ice underneath.

NASA has released an image capturing the first look at Pluto's blue atmosphere in infrared wavelengths which was taken by its New Horizons spacecraft.

In the image, sunlight is coming from above and behind Pluto while New Horizons was about 180,000 kilometres away.

Pluto is a "fascinating" world with a diverse range of landforms such as smooth plains, ice mountains and bladelike ridges, according to the first research paper from a flyby of the dwarf planet in July.

A stunning silhouette of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft after it shot past the icy orb last week show an extensive layer of atmospheric haze, while close-up pictures of the ground reveal flows of nitrogen ice, scientists said on Friday.

NASA's New Horizons mission data along with novel laboratory experiments and exospheric modelling has helped scientists to reveal the likely composition of the red cap on Pluto's moon Charon and how it may have formed. The team realistically replicated Charon surface conditions to measure the composition and colour of hydrocarbons produced on Charo...

The study was carried out by an international team of scientists, and included members from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences.

Pluto's heart-shaped structure, named Tombaugh Regio, quickly became famous after NASA's New Horizons mission captured footage of the dwarf planet in 2015 and revealed it is not the barren world scientists thought it was.

Pluto is covered with surprising dunes made of methane ice, which have formed relatively recently despite the frigid dwarf planet's very thin atmosphere, international researchers said Thursday.

The reddish polar region on Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is an effect of methane gas escaping from the icy dwarf planet's atmosphere, say scientists who solved the mystery behind the coloured region first spotted by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft last year.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back a stunning image of Pluto, showing sunlight filtering through and illuminating the icy dwarf planet's complex atmospheric haze layers.

The methane ice-rich surface on Pluto may be sublimating away into the atmosphere, exposing a layer of water-ice underneath.

NASA has released an image capturing the first look at Pluto's blue atmosphere in infrared wavelengths which was taken by its New Horizons spacecraft.

In the image, sunlight is coming from above and behind Pluto while New Horizons was about 180,000 kilometres away.

Pluto is a "fascinating" world with a diverse range of landforms such as smooth plains, ice mountains and bladelike ridges, according to the first research paper from a flyby of the dwarf planet in July.

A stunning silhouette of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft after it shot past the icy orb last week show an extensive layer of atmospheric haze, while close-up pictures of the ground reveal flows of nitrogen ice, scientists said on Friday.