Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A near-true-color image taken by New Horizons after its flyby. Numerous layers of blue haze float in Pluto's atmosphere. Along and near the limb, mountains and their shadows are visible. Pluto has a tenuous atmosphere consisting of nitrogen (N 2), methane (CH 4), and carbon monoxide (CO), which are in equilibrium with their ices on Pluto's surface.
View of Pluto as New Horizons left the system, catching the Sun's rays passing through Pluto's atmosphere, forming a ring. Soon after the Pluto flyby, in July 2015, New Horizons reported that the spacecraft was healthy, its flight path was within the margins, and science data of the Pluto–Charon system had been recorded.
A simulated view of the Pluto–Charon system showing that Pluto orbits a point outside itself. Also visible is the mutual tidal locking between the two bodies. Charon and Pluto orbit each other every 6.387 days. The two objects are gravitationally locked to one another, so each keeps the same face towards the other. This is a case of mutual ...
Pluto was considered a planet up until 2006, when researchers at the International Astronomical Union voted to "demote" it to dwarf planet.
Pluto and Charon are an extreme example of a tidal lock. Charon is a relatively large moon in comparison to its primary and also has a very close orbit. This results in Pluto and Charon being mutually tidally locked. Pluto's other moons are not tidally locked; Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra all rotate chaotically due to the influence of Charon ...
The definition of a planet has been a hot topic ever since a change kicked Pluto out of our planetary lineup in 2006. Now, a group of researchers is proposing a new definition yet again—one with ...
The geology of Pluto consists of the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto. Because of Pluto's distance from Earth, in-depth study from Earth is difficult. Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. [1]
"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 ...