Pluto's atmosphere just keeps getting more interesting. This is Pluto in a Minute.
So much of what we're are seeing from New Horizons' encounter with Pluto are these amazing closeup surface images. But there's a lot of science that isn't visual. Namely, the science that happened on Pluto's farside with respect to the Earth, and one of these experiments involved a very interesting Earth occultation.
While New Horizons flew behind Pluto, two different dishes in the Deep Space Network shot radio signals such that they intersected Pluto right as New Horizons flew behind the planet. The radio waves passed through Pluto's atmosphere on their way to New Horizons, and the way they we bent - the way the frequency changed - could tell the spacecraft (and the scientists running the mission) a little bit about Pluto's atmospheric pressure.
From previous observations, scientists assumed the pressure on Pluto's surface would be about 15 microbars, but it turned out they were wrong, by quite a bit.
This REX occultation data says that the pressure on Pluto's surface is just 7 microbars. It could be that the atmosphere is kind of collapsing, that the atmosphere, the gases that make up that atmosphere, are freezing and falling to the surface. If this is what's happening, it's possible that the collapse of Pluto's atmosphere is imminent, or at least that most of the gas in the atmosphere will freeze and fall to the surface.
There's more data on the New Horizons spacecraft from that same Earth occultation that will help scientists understand what they're seeing. In the meantime, for more new on Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation online with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and keep coming back here for more Pluto in a Minute.
www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
pluto.jhuapl.edu
Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология Pluto in a Minute: Did New Horizons Make it to Pluto Right Before the Atmosphere Collapsed?
Пікірлер: 26