Shoutout to #Pluto!: Where are you getting all that #nitrogen from anyhow? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/17/scientists-think-theyve-cracked-how-pluto-refills-its-seemingly-endless-supply-of-nitrogen-235/

In a recent NASA blog post, Kelsi Singer, a researcher at Southwest Research Institute working on NASA’s New Horizons, goes over an interesting discovery made about Pluto: It seems to have a near infinite supply of nitrogen.

Pluto is Gassy

The most recent images returned by New Horizons shows that Pluto’s surface is mostly composed of nitrogen, just like Earth’s. There is; however, about a 20 percent difference in composition. Earth’s atmosphere is around ~78 percent nitrogen while Pluto’s is ~98 percent. Another interesting fact is that the nitrogen in Pluto’s atmosphere is actually leaving, and at a pretty alarming rate. According to Singer, the nitrogen is escaping at an estimated rate of “hundreds of tons per hour.”

To learn more about the latest New Horizon imagery, check: HERE.

Other pictures also show that Pluto’s surface is full of ice (duh), but there is also evidence that some of this ice is actually flowing. According to Singer, normal water ice (H20) would be essentially frozen stiff, but ice composed of nitrogen would still be able to flow.

Being a dwarf planet, this phenomenon begs an answer for one question: How can Pluto still be full of nitrogen?

Maybe It’s Comets

Comets take the blame for a lot of stuff. Maybe comets brought bacteria to Earth where it flourished and evolved. Maybe it was (probably) an asteroid or comet that wiped out the dinosaurs. Now it might be comets that are bringing the necessary nitrogen into Pluto’s atmosphere, says Singer.

For this hypothesis the team tried to answer two questions: “Could comets hitting Pluto directly deliver enough nitrogen to Pluto’s surface and atmosphere? Could these comets excavate or expose enough nitrogen ice from the near-surface layers on Pluto by forming impact craters?”

Ultimately, Singer says that it’s just not possible for comets to bring in enough nitrogen to replace the amount escaping from the atmosphere. That leads the team to a perhaps more direct hypothesis: maybe the dwarf planet is creating a huge amount of nitrogen all by itself.

Taking The Direct Approach

In the team’s prediction paper, they go over how Pluto is more likely making nitrogen through the planet’s “heat and geologic activity.” Unfortunately, the team doesn’t have enough data from New Horizons to verify what exactly is the cause of all the nitrogen.

More and more data is expected to reach us over the next few months, so the team will have more clues about what’s going on with Pluto and its interesting nitrogen phenomenon then.

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Scientists Think They"ve Cracked How Pluto Refills Its Seemingly Endless Supply of Nitrogen

Learning new things about #Pluto and #Charon is the new norm as of yesterday. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/15/pluto-and-charon-shows-their-unique-orbit-245/

Upon reception of new data and photographs from the New Horizons mission that flew by Pluto on Tuesday, scientists are now reporting that, unlike the earth and the moon’s orbit, Pluto and Charon have quite a divergent orbit. It’s so different, in fact, that it is the only instance of this type of orbit in the solar system.

What’s different about Pluto and Charon’s orbits?

The data from the mission revealed new information about both Pluto and Charon. It was found that Pluto is only somewhere around 8 ½ times more massive than its moon Charon. On top of this, Pluto and Charon are only 12,200 miles (19,634 km) apart. To put this in perspective, Earth is about 81 times more massive than the moon and are 238,900 miles (384,472 km) apart. Because the differences in mass are so minute and because they are so close, Charon doesn’t actually orbit around Pluto.

In reality, Pluto and Charon have what is known as a binary system, and this is the only orbit of its kind in our solar system. What this means is that the small difference of masses and the close proximity causes both cosmic bodies to pull on each other, creating a gravitational point between the two that Pluto and Charon both orbit.

How is this orbit possible?

Scientists first reactions were that Charon was once a piece of Pluto that was broken off due to a cataclysmic collision with another planetoid. This is very similar to how our moon was formed. However, further investigation shows that Pluto and Charon are almost too different for that theory to be viable.

Pluto is very rocky and has a very thick atmosphere while Charon is made of about as much ice as it is rock and has no atmosphere at all. There are nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide ices on Pluto, but Charon mainly has water and ammonia ice. As of now, it is clear that the two bodies have been together for billions of years, yet they are so incredibly different.

What about Pluto’s other moons?

Pluto has four other, smaller moons besides Charon: Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx. Like Pluto and Charon, they also orbit the gravitational point the two larger bodies create. Because they orbit two different cosmic bodies, the sun could rise in the east and set in the west on one day, then rise in the west and set in the south on another. Since the four smaller moons orbit the gravitational pull at a farther distance, it is safe to say that the binary system of both Pluto and Charon have four moons.

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Pluto and Charon Shows Their Unique Orbit

New Faces and Mysterious Spots of Pluto Captured Thanks to New Horizons - http://clapway.com/2015/07/02/new-faces-and-mysterious-spots-of-pluto-captured-thanks-to-new-horizons654/

The New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto, and every day it sends fascinating new images of the dwarf planet that–as expected–are exceeding our expectations. The most recent photos show two distinct faces and a series of intriguing spots in full color. Earlier worries of lethal space debris have been reneged, much to the New Horizons’ NASA team’s relief.

IMAGE ORIENTATION

The newest images of Pluto and its moon Charon, captured by New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and its Ralph Instrument, show the two bodies as they would appear to the naked eye, with half of Pluto imaged over its circular body (on the right). This would mean that what looks like the south pole is actually the equator.

INTRIGUING FEATURES TO NOTE

Around the equator, or what appears as the South Pole, are spots of about 300 miles (480 km) in diameter, with a surface area approximately the size of Missouri. These spots seem to have consistent size and spacing, and they trace a band across the dwarf planet. Their origin is still a mystery to scientists, but some answers may be revealed upon New Horizons’ arrival on July 14th.

“It’s a real puzzle – we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” Dr. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced from Boulder, Colorado. He is also New Horizons’ principal investigator.

CHARON IS MYSTERIOUS, TOO

Another puzzle lies in wait in the form of finding out why and how Pluto differs so much from its dark and gray moon Charon. When two bodies form in space, they are generally composed of the same material, and so are expected to appear as such.

BACK TO PLUTO

Pluto’s color has been confirmed by these images. It is a brown planet, whose color is the result of “radiation chemistry acting on the methane and nitrogen ices there,” said Dr. Stern. But a stranger surprise is yet to come, for both the Lorri and Ralph Instrument are going to search for clouds.

CLOUDS ON PLUTO?

Science team postdoc Kelsi Singer of SwRI said “we’re looking for clouds in our images using a number of techniques…if we find clouds, their presence will allow us to track the speeds and directions of Pluto’s winds.”

Some artist renderings of what Pluto may look like from low orbit can really take one aback–thin, wispy systems of white contrails all but rotating across the brown and yellow landscape. If this surreal possibility turns out to be true, it could indicate that Pluto has a much more complex weather system than we’d originally thought.

NEW HORIZONS ITINERARY UPDATES

NASA gave the all clear for the spacecraft to continue its approach to the Plutonian system yesterday, after several weeks of scanning for dust clouds, rings, hidden moons or other interplanetary hazards posing an imminent threat to the probe. As a last ditch effort, the team even considered the possibility of using the large high gain antenna dish (used to communicate with us, on Earth) as a physical shield against debris. Space dust is lethal because, regardless of size, a particle travelling at 30,800 miles per hour (49,600km/h) would turn anything we’ve built into swiss cheese.

The New Horizons team engaged a 23 second thruster burn to increase the probe’s speed, but overall “we’re breathing a collective sigh of relief knowing that the way appears to be clear,” remarked Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division. The New Horizons team was worried they’d have to adopt a Safe Haven by Other Trajectory (SHBOT), a decision they needed to have made by this week, but it turned out to be an unnecessary precaution.

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS

The New Horizons team partially expected to detect new moons or rings, but the lack of either was a “bit of a scientific surprise,” to Dr. Stern. “As a scientist I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t spot additional moons to study, but as a New Horizons team member I am much more relieved that we didn’t find something that could harm the spacecraft,” added John Spencer of SwRI, leader of the New Horizons hazard analysis team. The possibility of a faint ring does exist, but it would be extremely sparse and almost invisible to equipment.

The path is open and the stage is set for New Horizons to make history in the age of interplanetary exploration in twelve days’ time.

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New Faces and Mysterious Spots of Pluto Captured Thanks to New Horizons