Pluto has 'blue sky' and ice water

NASA experts were surprised to find out that Pluto's atmospheric cloudy sky is blue.

Pluto's atmosphere is blue

After a nine-year journey and a total length of 4.8 billion kilometers, NASA's New Horizons space probe finally reached Pluto's target and recorded the images. photo on this "dwarf planet" .

According to NASA's latest announcement, the first color photo sent by the New Horizon explorer shows that Pluto's atmospheric cloud is blue.

Alan Stern, the team leader of the New Horizons project at the Southwestern Colorado Research Institute, said excitedly: 'Who would have expected to find the blue sky in the Kuiper belt? It's gorgeous. '

It is known that the Kuiper belt is the objects of the solar system spread out from the orbit of Hai Vuong Tinh.

The molecules in Pluto's atmosphere seem to be red or gray, but the way they scatter in blue has surprised the scientific community.

"These blue bands tell us the molecular composition of the atmosphere here," said researcher Carly Howett . The blue sky usually originates from the sun being scattered by microscopic particles in the air.

On Earth, molecules that cause scattering are nitrogen, while in Pluto, molecules are larger, but are relatively small in size - they are called tholins ' molecules .

NASA believes that these tholins are formed in the highlands in the atmosphere, where ultraviolet light breaks down and ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules. These ions will continue to react with each other, forming complex electrostatic particle structures. When they recombine, the molecules will form macromolecules with complex structures - the tholins themselves.

The image of Pluto is recorded by NASA's New Horizons space probe.

In addition, NASA has another important announcement, which is to find many areas of ice formations on Pluto. This finding comes from spectral data provided by New Horizon.

Scientist Jason Cook, a member of the research team, said: 'Most of the areas on Pluto do not see the appearance of ice, because it has been covered by an ice of a different liquid. More variable '.

However, areas containing ice have a red spectrum and this has caused scientists to have headaches. Project member Silvia Protopapa said: 'It is unclear why this ice has a red spectrum. We still do not fully understand the relationship between ice and tholins molecules on the surface of Pluto '.

New Horizons is still operating normally at 3.1 billion miles (about 5 billion km) from Earth. NASA experts still diligently analyze the collected images and provide us with interesting information about this "dwarf planet" .