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The surface pressure of the atmosphere of Pluto, measured by New Horizons in 2015, is about 1 Pa (10 μbar), roughly 1/100,000 of Earth's atmospheric pressure. The temperature on the surface is 40 to 60 K (−230 to −210 °C), [ 6 ] but it quickly rises with altitude due to a methane-generated greenhouse effect .
Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is tidally locked with it, and thus has the same climate zone structure as Pluto itself. [1] Haze with multiple layers in the atmosphere of Pluto. Part of the plain Sputnik Planitia with nearby mountains is seen below. Photo by New Horizons, taken 15 min after the closest approach to Pluto.
These figures should be compared with the temperature and density of Earth's atmosphere plotted at NRLMSISE-00, which shows the air density dropping from 1200 g/m 3 at sea level to 0.125 g/m 3 at 70 km, a factor of 9600, indicating an average scale height of 70 / ln(9600) = 7.64 km, consistent with the indicated average air temperature over ...
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The presence of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in Pluto's atmosphere creates a temperature inversion, with the average temperature of its atmosphere tens of degrees warmer than its surface, [142] though observations by New Horizons have revealed Pluto's upper atmosphere to be far colder than expected (70 K, as opposed to about 100 K). [137]
Diagram of the trajectory of New Horizons, which enables the REX experiment to utilize the occultation of Pluto between the spacecraft and Earth to determine atmospheric data Part of the radio network on Earth, a 70 m antenna at Goldstone, California. REX picks up the signal from Earth during the flyby to record some types of data about the ...
Moores and his colleagues hypothesize that Pluto's penitentes grow only during periods of high atmospheric pressure, at a rate of approximately 1 centimeter per orbital cycle. These penitentes appear to have formed in the last few tens-of-millions of years, an idea supported by the sparsity of craters in the region, making Tartarus Dorsa one of ...
Pluto likely acquired large moon Charon in a “kiss and capture” collision billions of years ago. It may have created a subsurface ocean on the icy dwarf planet.