Water And Blue Skies Found On Pluto By New Horizon Spacecraft!

The New Horizon spacecraft flew by Pluto, sending back incredible information: Blue skies and water ice exist on Pluto! Who would expect a dwarf planet 7.5 billion kilometers away to have things in common with Earth?

Blue Skies:
Most likely, the haze particles on Pluto are red or grey. But the way the particles scatter blue light makes the atmosphere blue. And that's the big mystery.
Carly Howett says the blue sky tells about the composition and size of the haze particles.  “A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.” She quoted.
It’s thought by scientist that tholin particles form high in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart and ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules, allowing them to react to eachother, forming complex negatively and positively charged ions.  The more complex molecules continue combining and growing, eventually becoming small particles.



Water Ice:
Many small, exposed regions of water ice were also detected. Jason Cook explained that finding out why water appears where it does is the big challenge right now. I wonder if it has anything to do with the composition and/or temperature of the planet.
Surprisingly, water ice on Pluto is colored red.  I wonder why that is.



Go to http://www.nasa.gov/nh/nh-finds-blue-skies-and-water-ice-on-pluto for more information!