A surprising discovery about Pluto is getting scientists shocked! Pluto has recently been part of scientific studies, when we thought Pluto was fine since it became part of the dwarf planets, a new astronomical discovery is here to give new information about it. It was found Pluto’s atmosphere is way different to the rest in the Solar System, it is like if the dwarf planet’s atmosphere was full of fog.
Science is a never ending field of discoveries and knowledge and it’s proving that by showing us new studies on topics we thought we already knew. So, let’s find out what’s up with Pluto.
Dwarf planets
To be considered a planet, celestial bodies need to match three features: orbit around the Sun, have a round shape and clean its orbit from other objects. Dwarf planets are like regular planets, but they don’t meet the last requirement, they are not gravitationally dominant to be able to clean their orbits. That’s why they aren’t considered a full planet, but a dwarf planet.
What about Pluto?
Pluto is part of the dwarf planets category and it is placed way far from the Earth, it’s almost out of the Solar System. Due to its position, it is considered a very cold dwarf planet.
I’m sure you have heard the name Charon at least once in your life, but what’s that? This is a big moon Pluto has, and they are always orbiting each other.
Pluto and Charon are important in this discovery because a spacecraft named New Horizons, reached near them and took some pictures that showed unprecedented information about Pluto.
The amazing discovery
Something strange was found in Pluto’s atmosphere, the air that surrounds the dwarf planet, that scientists couldn’t believe. So, what have they found in the atmosphere? Fog.
The remarkable thing about Pluto now is its atmosphere has kind of a fog containing haze particles, which get heated by the Sun throughout the day and colder at night.
The aim of these particles is to keep track of the amount of energy going in and out of Pluto, which is a unique thing to happen as it has never been seen on any other planet nor moon in the Solar System.
Telescopes!
We have mentioned the New Horizons spacecraft, but how did they really get to this information? By using telescopes, but not any kind, scientists used NASA’s best toy, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
This telescope is one of the most powerful telescopes in space since 2021. The important feature of it is the use of infrared light, which is capable of detecting things the human sight can’t reach.
Xi Zhang, an astronomer, proposed the idea of Pluto’s fog being capable of cooling the dwarf planet, but his idea was considered absurd. However, another scientist, Tanguy Bertand, found a sign using this telescope that confirmed Zhang’s theory.
Importance of this discovery
The new data about Pluto and its atmosphere is an opportunity to know more about the universe. I’m sure important studies will be carried out thanks to this new discovery on foggy atmospheres.
From now on, scientists could learn more about how cold and further planets work and about other moons with weird foggy atmospheres like Neptunes’ moon (Triton) and Saturn’s (Titan).
Once again, science is showing everyday one learns something new. Thanks to scientists’ discoveries and people like Xi Zhang, who fights for his theories, Earth and other elements of space will be further studied with this new data. Who knows what we will learn in the next few years? Maybe, scientists will discover a new planet?