Astronomers have found a cloud over the surface of Pluto – Ghhauto: Russian top stories

08.03.2016 01:34

above the surface of Pluto, which is the largest object located on the edge of the Solar System Kuiper belt, scientists were able to detect discrete education in the haze. There is a high probability that in the atmosphere of the former 9th planet has a cloud, according to the portal «New Scientist».

Back in July last year, detailed photos of Pluto’s surface have been made, but at the same time, scientists are still debating about the probability of the presence in the atmosphere of the dwarf cloud planet. The situation is complicated by the fact that the spacecraft New Horizons, completing a huge series of high-quality images, now continues to move away from the Earth, with hundreds of pictures on the board. Contact probe is practically impossible, a full on Pluto packet of data, scientists will be able to until the end of the year.

According to the experts, the composition of plutonovskih clouds, in the case if it is confirmed their existence is the same as the atmosphere of the dwarf planet nitrogen with traces of methane, acetylene, ethylene, and ethane. A detailed analysis of the available images New Horizons probe team plans to publish in the journal «Science»

Recall Probe «New Horizons» had already received various photos of unusual phenomena on Pluto -. How methane snow deposited on the surface of the “dark “part of the dwarf planet, the so-called” region of Cthulhu “, which acquired its characteristic red color as a result of” bombing “of its methane ice sunlight, NASA reported.

Not far from the” heart “of Pluto, Tombaugh region, there is his dark side, the so-called Cthulhu region whose surface is covered with a large number of Tolya – dark red and brown color substances, these substances arose from the decomposition of molecules of methane rays of sunlight and their connection to the more complex hydrocarbon chains

Research team «New Horizons», to date, received a direct proof of this hypothesis – the probe transmitted to Earth detailed photos of the region, where you can see the fresh snow methane deposits, has not yet been reddened by the action of the rays of the sun.

automatic interplanetary station «New Horizons», July 14 turned out to be as close as Pluto and its moons. In 2019 it reaches the planetoid 2014 MU69, located at a distance of 1.6 billion kilometers from the planet in the Kuiper belt.

The main task of «New Horizons», is the study of Pluto and its satellite Charon. Scientific equipment installed at the plant, designed to collect data on the presence of the magnetosphere from the dwarf planet, the composition of its atmosphere, surface structure and interactions with Charon.

Recall stone Pluto is significantly different in structure from the gas giant Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptura, no longer considered the ninth planet of the solar system in 2006. Now he is considered the cosmic body, which belongs to the class of dwarf planets orbiting the central luminary in the composition of the Kuiper Belt. An equivalent size of celestial bodies on the outskirts of the solar system found at least three: Haumea, Makemake and Eris. The rest of the dwarf planets are much smaller than they in size.

It should be noted, as well as the majority of the bodies of the Kuiper belt, Pluto is composed primarily of rock and ice and is relatively small. Its mass is less than the mass of the moon six times, and the volume – three times. Pluto’s surface area is approximately equal to the area of ​​Russia. In the orbit of Pluto’s highly eccentric and a large inclination to the ecliptic plane.