Why does Pluto’s atmosphere disappear and reappear?

The ice dwarf planets on the Kuiper belt, more than 4.8 billion kilometers from Earth, caught the attention of astronomers when they passed the stars in 2018.

We were able to observe the dwarf planets and their atmosphere against the backdrop of Pluto. With this unique insight, they came to a surprising conclusion. Explained in a new study.

Why does Pluto’s atmosphere disappear and reappear? So, in order to pique your attention, let’s get started.

What happens to Pluto’s atmosphere?

Pluto’s atmosphere is made of nitrogen, like Earth, and is kept on the surface of dwarfs by ice smoke. Now the ice is thick. The ice thickening is due to the distance between the Sun and Pluto. Pluto has been steadily increasing over the last 25 years.

The Pluto becomes more habitable, the dwarf planet’s atmosphere will freeze and become part of its surface. As temperatures continue to cool, Pluto will become colder and colder as its orbit around the Sun changes, and dwarfs will see sudden approaches to the Sun in some parts of that orbit.

As Pluto approached the Sun, it became hotter than it is now. But like everything in the world, heat is lost. As a result, the barley freezes and merges with the surface of Pluto and practically disappears.

Did the two-minute observation of Pluto give it?

Reading Pluto’s brush on a bright star in 2018 allowed scientists to observe the density of Pluto’s atmosphere. As Pluto approached the star, they saw the dwarf for two minutes. The team used telescopes in various locations in both the United States and Mexico to examine Pluto and its thin atmosphere, which is mostly nitrogen, such as Earth. Pluto’s atmosphere is maintained by the vapor pressure of ice on the surface of dwarf planets.

According to a statement by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), where several members of the research team live, if the ice melts on Pluto, it can drastically change the density of its atmosphere. Pluto keeps moving away from the Sun and lowers its surface temperature for about 25 years. Pluto is so far away from the Sun that it recedes (and cools) over time before approaching the Sun in other areas of its huge orbit.

Pluto has an inherent excess heat because it was closer to the sun. But the indolence begins to subside, and as Pluto cools down, more and more of its atmosphere freezes on the surface and “disappears”.

“Similar to this is how the sun heats the sand on the beach,” said Leslie Young, a three-person HR scientist studying the interaction of the solar system’s ice bodies with their surfaces. It is stated in.

The surface is preserved. New data shows that the sand is starting to cool.” Young said.

So how did you solve this just by seeing Pluto move in front of the star?

Researchers have observed how Pluto disappears as it moves in front of it and reappears after the dwarf planets have passed. According to the statement, the atmospheric density of dwarf planets can be determined from the speed of the disappearance and fading of stars, which takes about two minutes. This method is based on the term “mask”. This happens when an object in the world is hidden from it by another being.

Occultation research is an ancient and widely used technique in the astronomical world, and researchers have been using it to study Pluto’s atmosphere since 1988, and are senior managers of the SwRI program. Elliott Young said in a statement. The New Horizons mission gained momentum from its flight in 2015, doubling Pluto’s atmosphere every 10 years, but observations from 2018 show this trend.

It has not been shown to have continued since 2015, “Young said. Given to NASA. The world where I saw Pluto for the first time. The team observed Pluto passing in front of a star, the “central flash” in the center of the dwarf planet’s shadow. The flare-up caused by the refraction of light from Pluto’s atmosphere to the center of the shadow changes the curve of light that normally occurs while hiding from “U-shaped” to “W-shaped.”

“The central lightning bolt in 2018 was the strongest Pluto lightning bolt ever seen,” says Young. The central flare gives us a very accurate knowledge of Pluto’s shadow orbit on Earth.”

Young will discuss the results of this study at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Planetary Science Section of the American Astronomical Society on October 4th.

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