this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
182 points (99.5% liked)

Space

8857 readers
351 users here now

Share & discuss informative content on: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Planetary Science and Astrobiology.

Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

Picture of the Day

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula

Related Communities

🔭 Science

🚀 Engineering

🌌 Art and Photography

Other Cool Links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L7ePvmEn
Bitswap
[email protected]
Agamemnon
otter
182
(Old) picture of Pluto captured by the New Horizons spacecraft (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/space
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Does anyone know why it looks like Pluto has an atmosphere in this picture?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] wjrii 26 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Short answer? Because it does. It doesn't take much to be visible compared to space.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I don’t think any planet^1^ has surprised us more than Pluto.

^1^ I know. If anyone gets pedantic, they’re reclassified as a dwarf clown.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Pluto's atmosphere has been studied since the 1980s, using spectroscopy and stellar occultation (watching starlight flicker as Pluto passed in front of it). It wasn't a surprise when New Horizons observed it.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 7 points 3 weeks ago

I wasn’t thinking about the atmosphere. I meant in general, Pluto surprised more than other first fly-bys. Uranus is obviously extra weird in a lot of ways but who was expecting Pluto to be as interesting?

load more comments (1 replies)