Slowly but steadily dripping into the images that the spacecraft New Horizons to Pluto made within. NASA has Friday once again, photos have been published which provide a view of the distant dwarf planet in our solar system.
One of the photos of New Horizons shows that the atmosphere of Pluto two clear mistlagen know, reports NASA on Friday after studying the images. The first mistlaag is located approximately eighty kilometers in height, while the other thirty miles lower depends.
Models suggest that the mistlagen arise when uv light from the sun, particles of methane gas breaks down. That leads to the emergence of complex hydrocarbons, such as ethylene and acetylene, that New Horizons are also found on Pluto. The hydrocarbons whirl then down and then form ice crystals, which according to NASA is responsible for the mistlagen.
“My mouth fell open when I for the first time, the image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuipergordel saw. It reminds us that voyages of discovery us more than great finds – they bring us incredible beauty,” says New Horizons-investigator Alan Stern.
But New Horizons discovered more than the mistlagen. The spacecraft also sent images of Pluto to the earth that the scientists were surprised. In an area as large as the American state of Texas – Sputnik Ground – is a layer of ice that may have shifted and that still does. According to NASA seem to be that ice-sheet glaciers.
The ice-sheet may shift due to the minimum temperature of approximately 200 degrees Celsius below zero, says the American space agency. In the south of the large heart-shaped ijsvlakte on Pluto, also known as Tombaugh Region, show that there is new ice is deposited on the place where ancient ice-sheet. NASA saw this previously in the ‘active worlds’, such as earth and Mars.
How spectacular also: these images are still not the last New Horizons for us has collected. It lasts until the end of next year until all of the radio signals from the New Horizons images arrive. Currently, the spacecraft 12.2 million kilometers beyond Pluto and tears he deeper the Kuipergordel in. According to NASA he is in good health.